ALGERIA'S main secular opposition leader, Mr Hocine Ait Ahmed, called on President Clinton yesterday to appoint a special mediator to help end the whirlpool of violence in the North African
Speaking to journalists in Rome, Mr Ait Ahmed said the surge of bloodshed pitting Islamist guerrillas against security forces, had reached a point where Algeria risked degenerating into Somalia style chaos.
He accused the former colonial power, France, which is close to the military-backed government, of responsibility for inaction on a political solution and for indifference to the plight of Algerians "as if we were sub-humans".
"We would like this wall of silence, this Berlin Wall being rebuilt on the frontiers of Algeria, to be broken," Mr Ait Ahmed, leader of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), said, adding Europe had made itself an accomplice to violence by silence.
"One of the initiatives we expect is that President Clinton takes a measure likely to help bring, about peace. Why doesn't he appoint a mediator on Algeria.
"We believe that such an initiative in favour of a peace process will be likely to unblock the situation, the international situation," he said.
Algerian newspapers yesterday said nearly two weeks of bombings by Islamist guerrillas had killed at least 160 people, the latest deaths in violence since 1992 when authorities cancelled a general election that Islamists were poised to win.
News reports speak of 60,000 deaths. Mr Ait Ahmed put the toll at 100,000 and said the latest killings, since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on January 10th, were a signal from the radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) that it could not be crushed.
He accused President Liamine Zeroual of using the emergency to suppress democracy.
"The current debate is either war or peace. The rest is secondary," he said. "Today, before the civil war reaches a point of no return, international opinion must realise that if this process continues we will be moving towards a Somalia in Algeria ... the multiplication of warlords whether they be true Islamists or militiamen."
Mr Ait Ahmed and other leaders of the Algerian opposition, including the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), issued a joint appeal to the government two years ago to engage in a national dialogue on democratic life in the country. The call was rejected.
Mr Ait Ahmed, who was in Rome this week for a meeting of the Socialist International, said Islamist extremists had to be isolated but that no peace could come to Algeria unless Mr Zeroual agreed to dialogue with political forces on democratisation.
Meanwhile, nearly two weeks of bombings and raids on villages by Islamist guerrillas in Algeria have killed at least 160 people and wounded more than 200, Algerian newspapers in Paris said yesterday.
In the latest reported attacks, eight people died and 10 were wounded on Wednesday when a bomb exploded in a market in the garrison town of Blida, 50 km south of Algiers.
A car bomb also killed seven people and wounded scores the same day at Quatre Chemins hamlet near Boufarik, 30 km south of Algiers, where 14 people were killed four days ago in another explosion, Algerian Liberte newspaper said.