300 insurgents 'surrender'

2004-04-23 11:08

Algiers - Three hundred Algerian militants have agreed to lay down their arms, a newspaper reported on Thursday, a huge boost to government efforts to put an end to a dwindling Islamic insurgency.

The surrenders occurred across Algeria and involved members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, one of several groups waging an Islamic insurgency in Algeria, Liberte newspaper reported.

If confirmed, the massive surrender represents a major blow to both the Salafist group, know by its French acronym GSPC, and the Armed Islamic Group.

The Algerian Interior Ministry and the army in 2003 estimated the number of insurgents belonging to the groups, the nation's two principal terror groups.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika offered insurgents an amnesty under which they could surrender without fear of retribution if they were not accused of committing violent crimes like rape and murder.

But the amnesty offer expired six months after it was implemented in September 1999, so it remained unclear what would happen to those insurgents who gave themselves up.

Surrenders were reportedly taking place among insurgents in Chlef, 220km west of the capital of Algiers; Medea, 80km south of Algiers; and Jilel, 360km east of Algiers, where 70 GSPC members turned themselves in, Liberte said.

The GSPC, which recently declared its allegiance to al-Qaeda, was created after a 1998 split with the Armed Islamic Group. Both groups have been fighting to install an Islamic state in Algeria.

Together, the two groups are blamed for an insurgency that has caused the deaths of more than 120 000 Algerians since 1992. That year, the military government cancelled legislative elections to keep an Islamic party from coming to power, sparking the conflict. The violence has diminished in recent years.

- AP