U.S. English Foundation Research
ALGERIA
Language Research
2. Background: Background notes
Independence was achieved from France on July 5, 1962. The Evian Accords, which were signed in 1962, gave Algeria immediate independence and French aid to help reconstruct the country.
The Constitution was approved on November 19, 1976, effective November 22, 1976. It was later revised on November 3, 1988, February 23, 1989, and November 28, 1996. Note: Referendum approving the revisions of November 28, 1996 was signed into law December 7, 1996. A new Constitution was approved by referendum in 1989 establishing a multi-party democracy. Algeria is the tenth largest country in the world, and its population is considered one of the youngest.
After independence, Algeria became a revolutionary “Islamic socialist” republic with the National Liberation Front (FLN) as the only legal political party. In the 1960's and 1970's, it was a leader of the Third World and carried out ambitious economic and social planning policies to try and catapult Algeria into prosperity along socialist lines. In the 1980's, Chadli Benjadid attempted to move the country away from socialism through decentralization.
Algeria is undergoing its second bloody civil war in 40 years. The country which fought itself free of the French in the 1950's and 1960's in a war which cost two million lives and earned it admiration across the world is now wracked by bitter fighting between Islamic fundamentalists and military authorities. Over 60,000 people have died in the latest conflict. There are perhaps 30,000 Islamic guerrillas across the country and the army cannot end the war.
The violence has been gruesome and fiercely controversial. Not only soldiers but even secular intellectuals such as writers and journalists have had their throats cut in front of their families. There have been massacres in which almost entire villages have been slaughtered. In the information blackout that the authorities operate, it is hard to know who or what to believe. The Government says that these atrocities have been carried out by Islamic guerrillas who want to take Algeria back into the Dark Ages. Islamists claim that many of these atrocities were carried out by government forces that had penetrated the ranks of the guerrilla movement in order to discredit them. The only certainty is that all sides have much blood on their hands.
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