PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF ALGERIA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF ALGERIA

The West was demanding that Algeria do in a few weeks what it had taken centuries to establish, but Algerians were quick learners and had made an incredible effort to adapt, the Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, told correspondents this morning at a Headquarters press conference.

Introducing Mr. Bouteflika, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Information, Kensaku Hogen, said the Algerian President had had a long career in politics: in 1963, at the age of 26, Mr. Bouteflika became Foreign Affairs Minister, which was a position he held until 1979. In 1974, he was unanimously elected as President of the twenty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly session. In April 1999, he was elected President of Algeria.

A correspondent, noting that the question of interference had become one of prime importance in international relations, asked how the Algerian President defined sovereignty.

The President, who was speaking in French with English interpretation, said the increasingly inter-dependent nature of the world was not intended to ignore the independence of States or the national sovereignty of peoples. At the end of the nineteenth century, the value of western civilization was spoken of as the reason for colonization. States' sovereignty should not be attacked under such false pretenses. As an Algerian, he could not subscribe in any way to the idea that he should break into a neighbour's house because a child had allegedly been beaten by his parents. That would be a very serious violation of freedom. New theories were being invented solely to deprive peoples and States of their national sovereignty.

Asked what he was doing with respect to advancing the role of women in Algeria, specifically whether he intended to assign women to government posts, Mr. Bouteflika said he did not like the reference to women in his country, because Algerian women had full enjoyment of their human rights. Algerian society, like many others, was developing at a faster rate than many other countries of the world; however there were a few restrictions derived from cultural traditions and spiritual values. That sometimes led people in New York to believe that the Algerian women were persecuted. Indeed, in Algeria most of the magistrates were women. On the question of inheritance, an heir could receive his or her share in accordance with Islam and according to the wishes of the deceased. Men did not have any special privileges in that regard.

Returning to the question of human rights and sovereignty, another correspondent asked whether the interventions in Liberia a few years ago by an African peacekeeping force, or currently in East Timor were legitimate. Could the President conceive of any situation in Africa that would be so dire as to justify intervention with the agreement of the country in question? he asked.

"Let's not take extremes in an attempt to justify what is unjustifiable," Mr. Bouteflika said. In Liberia, there was a civil war, which had been very difficult to control, both within the United Nations framework as well as within the framework of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Emergency measures were agreed by the countries of the region. He was grateful to Nigeria for the role it played in introducing stability to the situation in Liberia without, in any way, infringing upon that country's sovereignty. The situation in the Great Lakes region of Africa was a tragedy of which humanity as a whole must not be proud. As extraordinary as those phenomena might be, specific instances could not justify drawing up a general theory whereby a country could one day find itself deprived of its national sovereignty.

How would the President describe relations with Morocco -- was the latest development just a "summer cloud"?

Relations between Algeria and Morocco were defined by geography and Moroccans did not intend to move, and Algerians did not intend to move either, he said. Thus, sooner or later, in one way or another, a solution must be found. There were two kinds of problems in Morocco and Algeria. The first was that of Western Sahara, which was a problem of the United Nations. In that regard, he was not asking anything more nor anything less than implementation of United Nations resolutions and of the Houston Agreement, which had been accepted by all the parties concerned. Regarding bilateral relations, the extremely complex situation was not insoluble.

Algerians were somewhat nomadic, he said. The fact that Algerians loved to move was not the fault of the Moroccans. There were 3 million Algerians near the borders who moved to Morocco every year, and Algeria did not receive nearly the same number of Moroccans. Also every year, 2 million Algerians moved to Tunisia, but not the other way around. Since independence, the question of the Arab Mahgreb had emerged. Of the dozens of agreements signed with Morocco and Tunisia, sometimes they were applied and sometimes they were not.

Moreover, he said the great moral crisis in Algeria was not the fault of either the Moroccans or Tunisians. Unfortunately, however, Morocco was an international provider of narcotics, which had affected young Algerians. Young people in Europe and Tunisia also suffered from the drug trafficking, to which Morocco had sometimes "closed its eyes". He loved the Mahgreb -- Moroccans and Tunisians -- and he would like those countries to face the Europeans as a homogenous group. No one would be able to do without the other, but they were still somewhat related to the situation in the Arab world around which there seemed to be a diplomatic ballet.

Another correspondent asked about the message the President had intended to send through the controversial seven-minute meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister at the funeral of the late King of Morocco, and whether it was true that he would like to play a greater role in the Middle East peace process and that the United States was urging him to do so.

Mr. Bouteflika thanked her for asking the question that had been asked of him everywhere he went. When people came together and shook hands, it was not necessarily a world event. As a Muslim, he belonged to a religion that said that upon being greeted by someone, you returned the greeting in the same manner, if not more warmly. He had met the Israeli Prime Minister under particularly impressive circumstances -- the death of a common friend. He was pleased to have spoken with a number of leaders. Regarding the diplomacy of Israel, he told Prime Minister Barak that when he evacuated the Golan and when he allowed the Palestinians to have their State, among other actions, then they could speak about diplomatic relations.

He said he was among those Arabs who believed that Israel could not be controverted in seeking world peace, but at the same time, it was the only nuclear Power in the region. Either Israel wanted peace and peace was possible, or Israel did not want peace. Apart from the Middle East peace process, Algeria had a lot to do internally, in the Maghreb, on the African continent and in the Arab world. So, it was not looking for a "side seat". Under certain serious conditions, Algeria had transmitted extremely important measures between countries. If it was to be used to isolate the Syrians, the Palestinians or the Lebanese, it was not ready to play that kind of role in any way -- directly, indirectly, officially or in the shadows. He was prepared to participate in the peace process, however, if faced with serious proposals that deserved consideration in the context of an effort aimed at peace.

Replying to a question about what the President intended to do about the deaths of thousands of innocent Algerians and other crimes against humanity by his predecessor, Liamine Zeroual, in the name of Islamic insurgency, Mr. Bouteflika said the former President had played his role. They were friends who had fought together in the National Liberation Army, and he could not say he was overjoyed by what the correspondent had to say about his friend. The former President did what he could in very difficult circumstances. The correspondent knew nothing about Algeria and was passing a value judgment on an Algerian leader. Even if he had not been his friend, Mr. Bouteflika said he would have defended him just as strongly.

As the head magistrate, Mr. Zeroual had been elected and the Algerian people had therefore spoken through universal suffrage, he continued. Some countries easily described events in other countries as crimes against humanity. The Holocaust was a crime against humanity; the enslavement of black Africans was a crime against humanity; even the war in Algeria was genocide, but he never thought to call it a crime against humanity. If there were a complex situation in the political sphere where human wisdom disappeared to a point where men no longer managed to communicate among themselves in a civilized manner, a correspondent should be understanding, and not judgmental, when reporting on those situations.

Algeria had not fought a liberation war for nearly eight years and lost 1.5 million people in order to get to a situation it did not want, he said. It had suffered much and was very tired. Algeria was looking forward to the year 2000, and not looking back to 1990. It was not his intention to reopen the files or to have a witch-hunt. Human rights representatives and organizations were welcome to visit Algeria and meet with both the victims of terrorism and the families of the terrorists themselves. His hands were clean, they were not bloodstained. He would discuss all questions regarding the situation in his country over the last decade, for which he had explanations and arguments. His family members were among those who disappeared. There was no collective responsibility for terrorism emanating from Algeria, only individual responsibility that was not shared by a terrorist's family. Algeria had too many wounds for him to open new ones.

The message of the African States was entirely consistent with democratization, which was an incontrovertible choice for all, he said in response to another question. Democracy was a culture and the West was insisting that it be rapidly achieved. Elections were in the pipeline in Niger, as well as in Guinea-Bissau, and they would be held soon in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As for the Comoros, there might be a democratic solution in the offing. Overall, it was clear that neither Africa nor the world at large could accept power that was de facto power. It was not enough to become educated and designate oneself as a super citizen and then govern the world with a bayonet. That was over, replaced by a new era of civilization. Now it was time to restore sovereignty to the people.

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