With the approach of the anticipated legislative elections of June 12, the authorities are seeking by all means to discredit the Hirak, a protest movement that has returned to the streets since the end of February.
The Algerian authorities classified as “terrorist organizations” two anti-regime political movements based abroad, Tuesday, May 18, one Kabyle separatist and the other Islamo-conservative, a new turn of the security screw unless one month of legislative elections. This decision targets the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK, independence movement), banned in Algeria, and the Rachad movement, which has no legal existence in the country. It was taken during a meeting of the High-Security Council (HCS) which was chaired by the Head of State Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The HCS “looked into the hostile and subversive acts committed by the so-called Rachad and MAK movements to destabilize the country and attack its security, and decided, in this context, to classify them on the list of terrorist organizations and to treat them as such”, according to a press release from the presidency, which gave no further details.
“Life imprisonment”
The activists of these movements risk life imprisonment under a new article of the penal code which punishes “any Algerian who activates or who enlists abroad in a terrorist or subversive association, group or organization” whose activities “harm the interests of Algeria”. An Algiers court issued international arrest warrants for Mohamed Larbi Zitout at the end of March, co-founder of Rachad and former Algerian diplomat residing in the United Kingdom, and three activists accused of belonging to the same movement. Mohamed Larbi Zitout, 57, launched the Islamist movement Rachad in 2007, of which he is one of the main leaders. He was appointed to the Algerian embassy in Libya in 1991 and went into exile in London in 1995 after resigning from diplomatic service. According to the Algerian authorities, Rachad brings together former militants of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS, dissolved in March 1992). This movement would have infiltrated and would seek to involve in violence the pro-democracy movement of Hirak, born in February 2019 and which peacefully calls for a radical change of political “system”.
“Bête noire of the regime”
As the election deadline of June 12, 2021 approaches, the government, whose pillar is the army, is seeking by all means to discredit the protest movement, which has been back in the streets since the end of February. Paris-based MAK is another pet peeve of the regime. He was recently accused by Algiers of planning terrorist attacks against the Hirak marches, which he denied. In support of their accusations, the authorities cited the confession of a certain Haddar Nour Eddine, presenting himself as a trafficker who allegedly bought weapons at the request of members of the separatist movement. Born in the wake of the “Kabyle Spring” of 2001, the MAK is accused of having “separatist” aims and anti-Arab racism. The Kabylia is a Berber-speaking region in northeastern Algeria that has traditionally rebelled against a very centralized state. It is one of the strongholds of Hirak.
“Hand of the stranger”
The Algerian regime has always seen behind every dissenting voice “the hand of the foreigner”, a catch-all expression to designate, without ever naming it, an external enemy. It is the first time, however, that he has taken the plunge in calling political movements “terrorists”. Faced with a social, economic, and political crisis, it recently intensified its repression against Iraqi militants, political opponents, journalists, and Internet users, increasing the number of legal proceedings and convictions. Another signal addressed to opponents abroad: the Algerian president promulgated the new extradition agreement between Algeria and France, Official Journal.