Forgotten by Arab Spring, Algeria may rue taking Gaddafi family Thursday, 01 September 2011 00:40

By Caroline Alexander and Flavia Krause-Jackson

Algeria’s harboring of the family of at-large Libyan autocrat Muammar Gaddafi risks bringing scrutiny to the former French colony that’s so far been unaffected by the Arab Spring.

Gaddafi’s wife, Safia, daughter Aisha and two sons, Hannibal and Mohammed, with their wives and children, crossed the border from Libya into Algeria on Monday, where they were granted exile. The Libyan rebels said the Algerian government committed “an act of aggression” and demanded their return.

While Algeria saw some protests at the start of the year, the uprising was suppressed and petered out after the government ended the 19-year-old state of emergency in February. The act of taking the closest relatives of an increasingly isolated dictator could spark a fresh wave of discontent at a delicate time for a country battling record-high food prices and waiting on its government to announce oft-promised reforms.

“This shows Algeria supports the Gaddafi regime and will widen the rift between the Algerian regime and the people, which is already at an explosive level,” Jeremy Keenan, an Algeria expert at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said in an interview. “Algeria has been unbelievably foolish.”

The Algerian government has allowed mercenaries, fuel, weapons to come into Libya over the past six months, said Guma Al Gumaty, the rebel’s British coordinator. “It is very unwise to be working against Libyan people’s interest. They should be looking toward the future.”

Algeria is one of a handful of African states not to have recognized the rebel’s National Transitional Council as Libya’s de facto government. Another is Zimbabwe, which this week said it’s recalling its diplomats from Tripoli because it won’t confer legitimacy to the group.

As a signatory to the Rome Treaty that set up the International Criminal Court, the Algerians authorities would be obliged to hand over Gaddafi should he cross the border. Gaddafi himself is wanted for crimes against humanity. The Libyan leader’s location is still unknown almost a week after he lost control of the capital Tripoli.

Algeria’s actions have alarmed Western powers too. The United States is concerned that the Gaddafi family’s travel across the border “isn’t in keeping with travel ban restrictions” under United Nations resolutions, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Still, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s government denies helping the Libyan regime and says Gaddafi’s kin were allowed safe passage “on humanitarian grounds.” The Algerian Health Ministry on Aug. 30 said Aisha Gaddafi gave birth to baby girl in Algeria.

At home, the ninth president of Algeria since France’s 132- year colonial rule in Algeria ended in 1962 moved swiftly to quash signs of unrest with a brutality matching that of Gaddafi in Libya or President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, according to Alessandro Politi, a former adviser to the Italian Defense Ministry. Unlike either of those leaders, he was successful.

Bouteflika, used police repression and amnesties to Islamic guerrillas to bring the civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people in the 1990s under control. He was elected in 1999 when he ran unopposed and in April 2009, he won a third five-year term, receiving 90 percent of the vote.

When opposition members staged peaceful protests in Algeria in February, the government sent a 10-to-1 ratio “of police into the streets to suppress them,” said James D. Le Sueur, a Libya expert at the University of Nebraska, and author of ‘Algeria since 1989: Between Democracy and Terror.’

Algeria’s secret service is more powerful than those found in other Arab regimes and more effective, he said.

The violence of the 1990s may work in the Algerian government’s favor “because civilians have had enough of it and don’t want to return to that,” Le Sueur said.

Half of Algeria’s population is under the age of 27, giving rise to the Independent Youth Movement for Change that briefly drew inspiration from the movements that swept away Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak the following month.

Some of Bouteflika reforms were announced after the state of emergency was lifted — a concession to protesters. He said his government would review the election law, appoint a panel to review the constitution, give more authority to provincial councils, and provide more jobs for youths.

Every year at the end of Eid, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Algerian government is confronted with annual strikes. Starting on Sept. 11, this year’s protests may test the government’s stability more than in previous years.

With a population of 36 million, Algeria is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of natural gas and possesses the 15th largest oil reserves, according to the Central Intelligence Agency. Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa, making Algeria’s decision to alienate the new leaders of its richer neighbor and prospective trade partner all the more baffling, Keenan said.

“If Algeria was really smart, it would hand these people over to the NTC, which would trump their card and it would be a win-win situation,” Keenan said. “But Algeria is better at making enemies than friends.”

Krause-Jackson reported from Washington. Contributors: Nicole Gaouette in Washington, Chris Anstey in Tokyo and Donna Abu-Nasr in Bahrain.

WP-BLOOMBERG