ALGIERS: One of Algeria’s most prominent militant has criticised an Al Qaeda-linked guerrilla group for continuing its fight for an Islamic state, according to a statement faxed to journalists yesterday.
Hassan Hattab, a founder of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), called on its members to accept a government amnesty under which they can lay down their guns in return for immunity from prosecution.
Although Algeria has succeeded in containing a long, bloody Islamist insurgency that erupted in 1992, rebels still carry out sporadic attacks on civilians and security services. Officials estimate that up to 800 rebels, most of them GSPC members, are still at large.
Hattab, also known as Abu Hamza, said in the statement that he no longer regarded those guerrillas still fighting to be members of the organisation he founded, because their actions would harm Muslims.
“The GSPC dissociates itself from this small group ... a group that still refuses to lay down arms ... Any statement that is not signed by Hassan Hattab should not be taken into consideration,” the statement said. There was no way of confirming the authenticity of the statement. But the wording and method of distribution was similar to Hattab’s previous messages.
Ammesty move
Algeria plunged into conflict when militants unleashed a holy war or jihad after the army cancelled elections in 1992, which the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was set to win. Authorities then feared an Iranian style revolution and an estimated 200,000 people were killed during the Islamic uprising.
It is not known whether Hattab himself has accepted amnesty. But speculation he had reached some sort of accommodation with the government arose last year when he gave an interview in Algeria to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper supporting the amnesty.
The GSPC was formed in 1998 when Hattab broke away from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in protest at its many massacres of civilians. He said the GSPC would focus its attacks on police and soldiers. Algeria has already freed hundreds of jailed Islamist fighters including a founder of the GIA, Abdelhak Layada.
