Background: After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army began a crack down on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but did not appease the activists who progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing - although significantly degraded - activities of extremist militants. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems. Algeria assumed a two-year seat on the UN Security Council in January 2004.
May 13th 2008Africa » Algeria » North » Biskra Sera and I went to Milan for the day, then two florence and we are now in Rome. We have seen many amazing things and have ahad an awesome time.
greece tommorrow! ... [full story]
May 8th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Batna A couple of months ago I showed my mom an essay that I had written for class entitled The White Male Minority. In it I wrote about standing out as a white person in India. I then compared this to gr ... [full story]
May 7th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Batna There is a little boy with straight hair as blond as the sun bleached sand alone in the center of a small, tunnel-like backyard. The faint dusk light sends his shadow arching along the ground behind ... [full story]
April 9th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Chott Melrhir I sat on the old stone wall that jutted out from the changing room and watched the tall guy lifeguard with hair that was longer in the front than in the back scoop leaves out of the tranquil pool. Ov ... [full story]
March 25th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Batna I sat on the old stone wall that jutted out from the changing room and watched the tall guy lifeguard with hair that was longer in the front than in the back scoop leaves out of the tranquil pool. Ov ... [full story]
February 26th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Chott Melrhir “You start out every sentence with ‘yo’”, Jane said half joking, half appalled. “I don’t know how you expect anyone to take you seriously.”
“I don& ... [full story]
February 19th 2008Africa » Algeria » East » Batna "If you do not suffer now, you will suffer for the rest of your life," David hissed in my ear as I bent painfully backwards as far as my body would allow. David, the Bikram yoga instructor, had becom ... [full story]
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