Bouteflika vows end to war
2004-04-20 09:03
Algiers - Newly re-elected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took the oath of office here on Monday, vowing to devote his second term to the quest for "true national reconciliation" in war-torn Algeria.
Picking up on two other themes of the electoral campaign ahead of his landslide re-election victory on April 8, Bouteflika pledged to resolve a three-year-old crisis in the Berber homeland Kabylie and to emancipate women from a restrictive family code of law.
Peace and reconciliation "will allow Algerians... to devote their energy and resources to the development" of the north African country, Bouteflika said at his lavish, televised swearing-in at a resort west of Algiers.
Meanwhile the outgoing head of government, Ahmed Ouyahia, was appointed by Bouteflika to head the country's new administration.
And defeated presidential candidate Ali Benflis resigned as secretary-general of the National Liberation Front (FLN).
The president's overwhelming victory was attributed largely to the "civil reconciliation" plan he unveiled shortly after first coming to power in 1999, under which several thousand Islamic extremist fighters surrendered in exchange for partial amnesty.
Hardline extremist fighters of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, and the Armed Islamic Group have rejected Bouteflika's offer, but are thought to be weakening.
Bouteflika, 67, said the continuing struggle against Islamic extremist militancy would be "in the framework of the international mobilisation against terrorism."
The president also called for renewed dialogue to resolve a three-year-old crisis in Kabylie, the northeastern homeland of Algeria's Berber minority.
"I am certain that an acceptable solution will be found," he added, calling for a return to the negotiating table between the government and traditional Berber leaders, known as aarches, who have not met together since talks collapsed in February 2002.
Berbers, who make up about one-fifth of Algeria's population of 32 million, have long resented their perceived marginalisation from the Arab-dominated mainstream of economy and society.
Anger boiled over
Three years ago, anger boiled over into riots after a Berber youth died in police custody.
The government gave the Berber language Tamazight national status in 2002, but the aarches insist that their language has equal status with Arabic.
Bouteflika also vowed to free women from the yoke of the Islamic "family code".
The president did not specify the changes that he has in mind for what women's groups have dubbed the "code of shame," voted into law in 1984 by the then sole ruling party, the FLN.
The controversial code considers women to be minors throughout their lives and requires them to remain under the tutelage of a family member or husband.
It also allows polygamy and makes divorce easy for men but nearly impossible for women, while inheritance laws award twice as much to male heirs as to female offspring.