more than 30 after french leaved algeria, they are still non democratic and it is not the fault of france, i would say the opposite .

France vies for the oil riches of Africa
By Julio Godoy
Updated Aug 27, 2004, 12:04 am Refer this article
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PARIS (IPS/GIN)— The French government announced in July that it is due to sign a military pact with former colony Algeria that would include weapons and technology transfer, training and intelligence sharing.

The agreement was negotiated by French defense minister Michele Alliot-Marie on a visit to Algiers July 19. Alliot-Marie, the first French defense minister to visit Algeria since the end of the bloody war of independence in 1962, said the “historic” agreement will “turn a page” in French-Algerian history.

Foreign minister Michel Barnier visited Algiers earlier in July to discuss new cooperation. Finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy followed his colleagues later in the month to approve a $2.5 billion aid package.

France has invited Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to a commemoration of the liberation of south France from Nazi occupation in 1944, although French veterans of the liberty struggle have opposed the move.

Analysts say these actions seek to secure access to Algerian oil and gas resources to counter similar efforts by the U.S.

“The French government wants to counter the diplomatic advances achieved by the Bush government in Algeria in particular, and in West Africa in general,” says Francois Gèze, an expert in French-Algerian relations. In an article in Le Monde written with Algerian-born scholar Lahouari Addi who lives in France in exile, Mr. Gèze condemned the “French alliance with a criminal regime.”

Mr. Gèze told IPS that the Algerian government has detained and tortured opposition leaders for more than a decade now. But given the anti-terrorism climate, Algeria represents what “the ‘great’ Western countries wish for in the Arab world”—a government ready to cooperate with the United States whatever its domestic record.

France has been building diplomatic relations across West Africa. This includes Gabon, ruled by Omar Bongo since 1966; Congo Brazzaville, ruled by Denis Sassou-Nguesso who came to power in 1997 following a civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives; and Angola, where former independence hero José Eduardo dos Santos has been in power since 1979.

In a recent instance of new “cooperation,” the French government dealt with dos Santos to protect French citizen Pierre Falcone charged with transfer of weapons to Angola. Mr. dos Santos named Mr. Falcone Angolan ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO) headquartered in Paris. The appointment would provide him diplomatic immunity......

Why are you trying to stop the democratic process in Iraq, you oil-stealing cocksucker?

In the vanguard of these governments stands the French government.

The agreement was negotiated by French defense minister Michele Alliot-Marie on a visit to Algiers July 19. Alliot-Marie, the first French defense minister to visit Algeria since the end of the bloody war of independence in 1962, said the “historic” agreement will “turn a page” in French-Algerian history.

it is curious . you have never been in algeria and since the iraqi war, you are there .

northafrica is stable since decades .
-simpleretard

Armed Islamic Group
Algeria, Islamists

What is the Armed Islamic Group?
The Armed Islamic Group (known by its French acronym, GIA) is a radical offshoot of Algeria’s main Islamist opposition.

Since the North African country plunged into a bloody civil war in 1992, the group has been linked to terrorist attacks in Europe and to the massacres of tens of thousands of civilians in Algeria.

In the past few years, many GIA members have joined other splinter Islamist groups or have been jailed or killed in government crackdowns. The GIA is now thought to have between a few hundred and a few thousand operatives and is listed on the U.S. roster of foreign terrorist groups.

How was the GIA formed?

Out of a bitter struggle for control of Algeria between Islamists and the country’s authoritarian leadership. After winning independence from France in 1962, the country was governed by a socialist party called the National Liberation Front (FLN). Following a series of youth riots in the late 1980s, the FLN allowed the country’s first multiparty elections. When a party of moderate and radical Islamists called the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won a round of parliamentary elections in 1991, the FLN nullified the victory and banned the FIS. The resultant public outcry turned violent, and the paramilitary wing of the FIS began targeting security forces. The GIA emerged as one of several radical FIS splinter factions that have continued to fight against Algeria’s FLN-supported, military-dominated regimes, from the government that ruled the country until 1999 to the current, more conciliatory leadership.

What does the GIA want?
According to the State Department, the GIA “aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state.” Beyond that, however, the GIA has not articulated precise political goals, and GIA cells are said to operate independently. Most recent GIA attacks are thought to be either acts of retribution, assaults on wayward members, or simple banditry.

Whom does the GIA target?
Both Algerians and others. The GIA’s massacres of civilians reached their height in the mid-1990s. Other GIA targets have included Algerian journalists, intellectuals, and secular schools. More recently, the GIA was thought to be behind two bombings in Algiers in August 2001.

The GIA is also accused of killing more than one hundred foreigners, mostly Europeans, since 1993. The group has a particular disdain for France, the country’s former colonial ruler and a major supporter of Algeria’s military-backed regime. In 1994, GIA members hijacked an Air France flight, and in late 1999, a French court convicted several GIA members for a series of bombings in France in 1995.

Does the GIA have ties to al-Qaeda?
Possibly. Experts say that some GIA leaders may have had contact with Osama bin Laden while fighting in the 1979-89 Afghan war against the Soviet Union. Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network also includes some Algerians, and European authorities have arrested dozens of Algerian militants suspected of being al-Qaeda operatives plotting attacks on European cities, perhaps involving chemical weapons.

But while the full extent of the connection between the GIA and al-Qaeda is unclear, experts say, it is probably at least somewhat limited. The GIA operates principally in Algeria, and its objectives are more local than al-Qaeda’s ambitions for a global holy war. But some intelligence officials say that al-Qaeda’s leadership is increasingly interested in using national Islamist movements such as the GIA to breathe new life into the wounded al-Qaeda network.

Does the GIA target Americans?
The GIA has not targeted Americans in Algeria. But some Algerian terrorists who have tried to attack the United States may be linked to the GIA. In December 1999, Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian living in Montreal, was arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border with a carload of explosives; he was later convicted of plotting a millennium-eve attack on Los Angeles International Airport. Ressam has since led authorities to alleged co-conspirators in Canada and the United States.

www.cfrterrorism.org . . .

After a century of rule by France, and in the wake of 1948 elections rigged by French colonists to reverse the sweeping victory of a Muslim political party in 1947, Algerians fought through the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisified, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent an extremist-led government from assuming power. The Algerian army began a crack down on the FIS that resulted in a continuous low-grade civil conflict between Islamic activists and the secular state apparatus. The government later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religiously-based parties, but did not appease the activists who progressively widened their attacks. Operations by the activists and the army resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths during the decade-long conflict. The government gained the upper hand by the mid-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. Many armed militants of other groups surrendered under an amnesty program designed to promote national reconciliation, but small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. Issues facing the winner of the April 2004 presidential election include Berber unrest, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, the presence of a group in the southern regions of the country that kidnapped European tourists in 2003, as well as the need to diversify Algeria's petroleum-based economy. Algeria assumed a two-year seat on the UN Security Council in January 2004.

www.cia.gov . . .

The islamist revolution is finished since many years and that was during 7 years .

A lot people think that muslims must resolve themself their problems.