MERIP Media Resource List, September 28, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Algerians to vote in referendum on peace and reconciliation charter, September 29

PAUL A. SILVERSTEIN
Paul Silverstein is assistant professor of anthropology at Reed College and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report . His research interests include North African immigration, religion and politics in France; Berber and regionalist politics in Algeria; and the Amazigh cultural movement in Morocco. His book, Algeria in France: Islam, Berberity and the French Nation-State , is forthcoming from Indiana University Press. He commented today: "Efforts to 'turn the page' through amnesties represents an attempt to shield the regime and its military security apparatus from taking responsibility for a large part of the violence that has occurred since 1992. The essential problem is that little has changed in the make-up of the state since the war -- the same forces that magnified the conflict (i.e. the military and the security forces) are still in power. It is likely that the decrease in violence since 1998 has more to do with internal regime consolidation than it does with the effectiveness of amnesties. In this respect, amnesties have less to do with peace than they do with establishing a regime of impunity."

JAMES MCDOUGALL
James McDougall has been a research fellow at the Middle East Centre, Oxford University, now teaches modern Islamic history at Princeton University and is a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report. His research focuses on 19th and 20th century North Africa. He is the author of the forthcoming History and the Culture of Nationalism in Algeria (Cambridge). He commented today: "The Algerian referendum on 'peace and national reconciliation' caps the process of reintegrating Algeria's various political currents into the re-asserted state structures that many observers over the past decade had believed to be on the brink of collapse. The presidency hopes that this will mark Algeria's domestic normalization and full return to the international stage. In promoting 'reconciliation' and amnesty, the government is closing the door on demands for investigation of, and accountability for, the past decade's violence and disappearances and on justice for the victims and their families."

AZZEDINE LAYACHI
Azzedine Layachi is associate professor of political science at St. John's University. He is the author of several books and many articles, including Economic Crisis and Political Change in North Africa (Praeger, 1998) and the book chapter "Political Liberalization and the Islamists in Algeria," in Islam, Democracy and the State in Algeria (Routledge, 2005). He commented today: " The national reconciliation charter may be a good thing to help Algeria in the next phase of recovery from the horrible 1990s decade; it may also be good for the consolidation of the presidential power of Bouteflika (especially over the military), but if it is not accompanied by a series of necessary measures dealing with important pending issues, it will not have the promised effect. The issues of unpunished crimes by insurgents and government security forces, the thousands of still missing persons, the public investigations of mass killings, and the rights of victims and their families need also to be dealt with promptly."

Background :

+ Youcef Bouandel, "An Algerian Presidential Free-for-All," Middle East Report Online , April 6, 2004.
[Historical background on President Bouteflika, including the military's role in government.]

+ Susan Slyomovics, "Morocco's Justice and Reconciliation Commission," Middle East Report Online , April 4, 2005.
[Description of a recent attempt at national reconciliation in Morocco, Algeria's neighbor.]

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