Abdelaziz Bouteflika
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| Abdelaziz Bouteflika عبد العزيز بوتفليقة |
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.jpeg/225px-Bouteflika_(Algiers,_Feb_2006).jpeg) |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 27 April 1999 |
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| Prime Minister | Smail Hamdani Ahmed Benbitour Ali Benflis Ahmed Ouyahia Abdelaziz Belkhadem |
| Preceded by | Liamine Zéroual |
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| Born | 2 March 1937 Oujda, Morocco |
| Political party | FLN |
| Religion | Sufi Islam (Aissaoua Rite) |
Abdelaziz Bouteflika (IPA: [abdəlazɪz butəflika]) (Arabic: عبد العزيز بوتفليقة) (born March 2, 1937 in Oujda, Morocco[citation needed] ) has been the President of Algeria since 1999.
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[edit] Family
Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been married since August 1990 and has no children. His wife, Amal Triki, is a daughter of Yahia Trikian, an ex-diplomat.
Bouteflika has three half-sisters (Fatima, Yamina, and Aïcha) with whom he has no contact[citation needed], four brothers (Abdelghani, Mustapha, Abderahim and Saïd) and one sister (Latifa).
His father, Ahmed Bouteflika, was born in Tlemcen. Ahmed Bouteflika was married to two women: Belkaïd Rabia and Ghezlaoui Mansouriah (the mother of the current President)[citation needed].
When Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937, he was the first child of his mother and the second child of his father (Fatima, his half-sister, preceded him).
[edit] Early years and War of Independence
Bouteflika lived and studied in Morocco until he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in 1956, at the age of 19. He started as a 'controller' (checking the situation and making reports on what's happening in the Moroccan border and in west Algeria), but later became the administrative secretary of Houari Boumédiène. Many leaders of the Algerian War of Independence say that some of his reports caused the assassination of several heroes of the war, such as that of Boucif.[citation needed]
In 1960, Boumédiène nominated him to a position in Tunisia but Bouteflika was unreachable, and no one knew where he was[citation needed]. When he showed up after traveling in Europe, disciplinary actions were going to be taken against him, but Boumédiène decided otherwise. Bouteflika was nominated to another function in Mali to open a new front. Some observers see this affectation as punishment since, they argue, there was no front to "open" from this sahelian country. After some weeks in Mali, Bouteflika disappeared again, he showed up after several months spent in Morocco with a woman.[citation needed] Once again he was forgiven by Boumédiène.
In 1962, as independence arrived, he aligned with Boumédiène and the border armies in supporting Ahmed Ben Bella against the provisional GPRA government.
[edit] Early post-independence political career
After Algeria's independence in 1962, he became deputy of Tlemcen in the Constituent Assembly and Minister for Youth and Sport in the government led by Ahmed Ben Bella. The next year, he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, and would remain in the post until the death of President Houari Boumedienne in 1978. He was considered very close to Boumédiène; Ben Bella's attempt to dismiss Bouteflika in 1965 is considered the triggering factor in Boumédiène's coup d'état some time later[citation needed]. With Boumédiène in power, Bouteflika rose to a position of great importance within the regime, and he was generally seen as one of the two main candidates to succeed Boumédiène, who died in 1978. (He was seen to represent the party's "right wing", more open to economic reform and rapprochement with the West; Col. Mohamed Salah Yahiaoui represented the "boumédiènist" left wing. [1] In the end, the military opted for a compromise candidate, Col. Chadli Bendjedid. Bouteflika was reassigned the role of Minister of State, but successively lost power as Bendjedid's policies of "de-Boumédiènisation" marginalised the old guard.
[edit] The Court of Financial Auditors
In 1981, he was sued for having stolen Algerian embassies' money between 1965 and 1979, On 8 August 1983, Bouteflika was convicted by The Court of Financial Auditors and found guilty of having fraudulently taken 60 million dinars during his diplomatic career.[citation needed]
In his defence, Bouteflika said that he "reserved" that money to build a new building for the foreign affairs ministry, but the court judged his argument to be "fallacious".[citation needed]
In 1979, just after the death of Boumédiène, Bouteflika reimbursed 12 212 875,81 out of the 70 millions that was put in a Swiss bank.[citation needed]
Although Bouteflika was granted amnesty by the president Chadli Bendjedid, his colleagues Senouci and Boudjakdji were jailed.[citation needed]
After the amnesty, Bouteflika was given back his diplomatic passport, a villa where he used to live but did not own and all his debt was erased; he never paid back the money he had allegedly reserved for a new foreign affairs ministry's building.[citation needed]
[edit] The "Exile"
In 1983 he left the country and stayed in the United Arab Emirates, France and Switzerland. After six years abroad, he finally came back and rejoined the Central Committee of the FLN in 1989.
In January 1994, Bouteflika refused the Army’s proposal to succeed the assassinated president, Mohamed Boudiaf, presumably to avoid asking the support of the political parties.[citation needed] Instead, Gen. Liamine Zeroual became President.
[edit] Elected President in 1999
In 1999, Liamine had unexpectedly stepped down and announced prescheduled elections. Bouteflika ran for President as an independent candidate, supported by the military. He was elected with 74% of the votes, according to the official count. All other candidates withdrew from the election prior to the vote, citing fraud concerns. Bouteflika subsequently organized a referendum on his policies to restore peace and security to Algeria (involving amnesties for Islamist guerrillas) and to test his support among his countrymen after the contested election. He won with 81% of the vote, but this figure was also disputed by opponents.
[edit] Economic policies
During his first mandate Bouteflika launched a five year economical plan (2000-2004), called the Support Plan for Economic Recovery (PSRE: Plan de Soutien à la Relance Economique). The plan was a package of various sub-plans such as the National Plan for Agricultural Development (PNDA: Plan National pour le Développement Agricole), aimed at boosting agricultural production. Other sub-plans included the construction of social housing units, roads, and other infrastructure projects. The PSRE totalled $7 billion worth of spending, and gave satisfactory results with the economy averaging higher than 5% annual growth rates, with a peak of 6.3% in the year 2003. Bouteflika also pushed through a fiscal reform which participated in the economic revival.
[edit] Foreign policy
Bouteflika was also active on the international scene. He presided over the African Union in 2000 and secured the Algiers Peace Treaty between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and supported peace efforts in the African Great Lakes Region. He also secured a friendship treaty with neighbouring Spain in 2002, and welcomed president Chirac of France on a state visit to Algiers in 2003, in a prelude to the signature of a friendship treaty. Relations with the Kingdom of Morocco remained slightly tense, with diplomatic clashes on the issue of the Western Sahara, despite promising beginnings in 1999.
[edit] Second term in 2004
On April 8, 2004, he was re-elected by 85% of the vote in an election that was praised by OSCE observers as an example of democracy in the Arab world, while contested by his rival and former Chief of Staff Ali Benflis. Several opponents alleged that the election had not been fair, and pointed to extensive state control over the broadcast media.
The Kabyle population boycotted the election, participation did not exceed 11%.
[edit] Reconciliation plan
During the first year of his second term, President Bouteflika held a referendum on his "Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation", inspired by the 1995 "Sant'Egidio Platform" document. Bouteflika's plan aims at concluding his efforts of ending the civil war, from a political and judicial point of view. He obtained large popular support with this referendum and has since instructed the government and Parliament to work on the technical details of its implementation. Critics have claimed that the plan will only grant immunity to members of the armed forces responsible for crimes, as well as to terrorists and have argued for a plan similar to South Africa's "truth and reconciliation commission" to be adopted instead. Bouteflika has dismissed the calls, claiming that each country needs to find its own solutions to ending painful chapters of its history. Thus far he has received large political support on this issue, from both the Islamist and the Nationalist camps, and most of the Democrat camp - except one party: the FFS (Front of Socialist Forces).
[edit] Economic policies
The first year of Bouteflika's second term also featured a new five year plan, much larger this time drafted. The Complementary Plan for Economic Growth Support (PCSC: Plan Complementaire de la Croissance Economique) aims for the construction of 1 million housing units, the creation of 2 million jobs, the completion of the East-West 1200km long highway, the completion of the Algiers subway project, the delivery of the new Algiers airport, and other similar large scale infrastructure projects. The PCSC totals $60 billion of spending over the five year period. Bouteflika also aims to bring down the external debt from $21 billion to $12 billion in the same time. He has also obtained from Parliament the reform of the law governing the oil and gas industries, despite initial opposition from the workers unions. However, Bouteflika has since stepped back from this position, supporting amendments to the hydrocarbon law in 2006, which propose watering down some of the clauses of the 2005 legislation relating to the role of SONATRACH, the state owned oil & gas company, in new developments. It also proposes new provisions enabling the country to benefit from windfall taxes on foreign investors in times of high prices. Bouteflika has also put up for sale 1300 public sector companies, and has already achieved privatization of about 150 of them, mainly in the tourism, food processing, cement, construction material and chemical industries.
[edit] Foreign policy
On the international scene, Bouteflika's second mandate has seen diplomatic tensions rise with France due to the controversial voting by the French Parliament of a law ordering French history school books to teach that French colonisation had positive effects abroad, especially in North Africa. The diplomatic crisis which ensued has put on hold the signing of a friendship treaty with France (February 23, 2004, re-endorsed in December 2005). In 2004 Bouteflika also organised the Arab League Summit and became President of the Arab League for one year. His calls for reform of the League did not gain sufficient support to pass in during the Algiers summit however.
[edit] Hospitalization in 2005
Bouteflika was admitted to a hospital in France on 26 November 2005, reportedly suffering from a gastric ulcer hemorrhage, and discharged three weeks later. [1] However, the length of time for which this normally publicity-loving leader remained virtually incommunicado led to rumours that he was critically ill with stomach cancer.[2] He checked into the hospital again in April 2006 [3].
[edit] Constitutional amendment in 2006
Bouteflika appointed a new Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, in 2006. Belkhadem announced plans to amend the Algerian Constitution to allow the President to run for office indefinitely often and increase his powers. [4]
Observers see this amendment as a ruse to cancel the two-term limit. They predict the introduction of a new law that would allow Bouteflika to run for a third time.
[edit] Notes
- ^ news24.com (author is "(SA)"), date is December 18, 2005
- ^ middle-east-online.com, no author, date 2005-12-15
- ^ Algeria leader in French hospital, BBC, 20 April 2006
- ^ iol.co.za, by Hassane Meftahi, May 26 2006; and liberation.fr (in French)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Profile: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, BBC, 9 April, 2004.
- Voters and candidates give Algeria poll a miss, Guardian, April 16, 1999, by Jacqueline de Gier
- Videos of the Black Spring: (from dailymotion.com) [2] and [3].
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Leopoldo Benites |
President of the United Nations General Assembly 1974 – 1975 |
Succeeded by Gaston Thorn |
| Preceded by Liamine Zéroual |
President of Algeria 1999 – present |
Incumbent |
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