The Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation was a referendum proposed on September 29, 2005 by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in an attempt to bring closure to the Algerian Civil War. A referendum (plural: referendums or referenda) or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The President is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria. ... Abdelaziz Bouteflika (عبد العزيز بوتفليقة) (born March 2, 1937) is the President of Algeria (since 1999). ... The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. ...

Background

The war broke out after Algerian military authorities suspended the country's first democracy|democratic national elections in the early nineties, to prevent an Islamist electoral victory. It is estimated to have caused around 150,000 dead or missing Algerians, with extremist fundamentalist groups generally held responsible for the most deaths, including atrocious massacres of civilians; but also with much criticism directed towards Algerian Special Forces and other military units for torture and "disappearances". Violence subsided in the mid-to late 1990s after a largely successful government campaign, but it still claims tens of lives each year, and some minor fundamentalist organizations continue to attack government and civilian targets. Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... Fundamentalism is a movement to maintain strict adherence to founding principles. ... The word massacre has a number of meanings, but most commonly refers to individual events of deliberate and direct mass killing, especially of noncombatant civilians or other innocents, that would often qualify as war crimes or atrocities. ... A civilian is a person who is not a member of a military. ... The Special Intervention Group (French: Groupe dIntervention Spécial, GIS) is a special forces group created in Algeria in 1987, initially with 300 members. ... The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg is an infamous and rarely used torture device. ... A Forced disappearance occurs when an organization (usually a ruling government and that is usually a police state or dictatorship) forces a person to disappear from public view. ...

Charter and referendum

According to official results, the Charter was approved by 97.36% of the voters, amounting to 79.76% of the eligible electorate. The Charter, which follows on the 1999 law on "civil concord" and subsequent amnesty measures, proposed the following steps: In politics, an electorate is the group of entities entitled to vote in an election. ... Amnesty (from the Greek amnestia, oblivion) is an act of justice by which the supreme power in a state restores those who may have been guilty of any offence against it to the position of innocent persons. ...

• 1. Amnesty for "terrorists" who have handed in their weapons, except those guilty of mass murder, bombing attacks on public installations, and rape. This includes those condemned in absentia. On the other hand, the outlawed Islamist party FIS will not be reinstated;

• 2. Implicit exoneration of the security services for the "disappearance" of more than 6,000 Algerians;

• 3. Financial and other compensation to the families of the dead and disappeared

President Bouteflika described the referendum as an effort to end bloodshed in the country. The civil war, which broke out in 1992, has claimed more than 150,000 lives and cost the country's infrastructure $30 billion. It has been suggested that Demographics of terrorism be merged into this article or section. ... This article deals with mass killings which are not considered genocide. ... In Absentia is the eighth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in September 24, 2002. ... Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... The Islamic Salvation Front (Arabic: الجبهة الإسلامية للإنقاذ, al-Jabhah al-Islāmiyah lil-Inqādh) (French: Front Islamique du Salut) is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria. ... A Forced disappearance occurs when an organization (usually a ruling government and that is usually a police state or dictatorship) forces a person to disappear from public view. ... A civil war is a war in which the parties within the same country or empire struggle for national control of state power. ...

Implementation

The Charter left to the President's discretion detailed implementation of matters such as indemnities to victims of terrorism and their families, compensation for material damages, the future of rural militias raised by the military, the possible reintegration of those dismissed from work on political grounds, and the extent to which insurgent leaders who escaped abroad will be pardoned. These matters may be regulated by parliamentary legislation or by presidential decree. A militia is a group of citizens organized to provide paramilitary service. ... A parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. ...

Criticism

The Charter has been criticized by human rights groups who argue that it will not really end violence. Furthermore, the families of victims and their organizations continue to demand information on the fate of the missing and to insist that "justice" must precede reconciliation. Many still fear the return of terrorists to their communities. Finally, the largest radical Islamist group still active – the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which is estimated to consist of a few hundred members and is allied with Al-Qaeda – has totally rejected the Charter and has called for a continuation of their "jihad" against the regime. Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (French Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, also known as Group for Call and Combat) is an Algerian Islamist terrorist group which aims to overthrow the Algerian state and institute a fundamentalist Islamic republic. ... Al-Qaeda (Arabic: القاعدة, the foundation or the base) is the name given to a worldwide network of militant Islamist organizations under the leadership of Osama bin Laden. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

External links

• CNN.com
• Magharebia The News & Views of the Maghreb