Opinion by Arezki Daoud | Even Hollywood could not have come up with such a dramatic script. The head of the Algeria military junta is dead after 15 years as Defense Chief of Staff and nearly a year as the country’s undeclared, but real dictator.  Over the past few months, Ahmed Gaid Salah saw his profile skyrocket and has since been one of Algeria’s most hated people. He is the man who engineered an election where no one voted and yet he and his cronies had the guts to declare a 40% turnout. The man was all about him and in some of his actions, he did a favor to the Algerians, who for a moment thought he was the savior of the country.

Indeed he ordered disgraced president Bouteflika to leave and not seek a fifth mandate. He did the unthinkable when he arrested a criminal syndicate composed of former heads of intelligence, the brother of Bouteflika and their support system, such as the oligarchs who ransacked the country for decades.  These actions were welcomed by all Algerians and seen as a sign that finally law and order were on their way.

But a tyrant always remains a tyrant. Gaid Salah did all of this not for the good of country but for the survival of a regime that he, his support system, and several foreign powers benefited greatly, and want to maintain the status quo. The generals who have been around him also enriched themselves, and so the system had to be saved at any cost.  Gaid Salah now enters into history as one of the worse things that happened to Algeria. A man who endorsed violence, arrests, torture, and the hijacking of the court system to punish thousands of Algerians whose crime was to demand the establishment of a civilized nation, where people respect each other regardless of their ethnicity, religion, and whatever political affiliation.  Instead, Gaid Salah was racist, having unleashed violence against men and women who carried the Amazigh flag. He sowed the seeds of ethnic hatred, to no avail. The Algerian people have said very loudly that such tactics do not work anymore.  Hundreds of people are now in jail for their political views because he ordered Justice Minister, the disgraced Belkacem Zeghmati, “d’aller jusqu’au bout” (go all the way to the end)… insinuating that the crackdown against the population must escalate at any cost. Sources in Algeria say that one of his last orders was to up the crackdown on the Hirak movement so as to punish the people for their lack of support to the presidency of Tebboune.  Such violence and hate are now recorded in history for perpetuity.

Gaid Salah did not save Algeria, instead he sank it. But this is not a solo venture. He could not have done it alone. Gaid Salah has the support of a dangerous domestic criminal syndicate that comprises of operatives in the administration, the military, the courts, all being manipulated and supported by foreign entities.  Political opponents see the hands of the United Arab Emirates in the disciplining of the Algerian people. Otherwise, they say, how can one explain the monopolistic position of UAE companies in every sector of the economy, from defense, to real estate, to manufacturing. The latest entry of UAE companies is in the import of wheat. Algeria now has to go through a single UAE company to purchase French wheat. Or any wheat. Attacks against opponents on the Internet, whether on YouTube or on Facebook have been orchestrated from the UAE and unleashed by its operatives in Egypt. The French government is no better, and is also deeply involved in the disciplining of the Algerian people.  Otherwise, how can one explain the war against opposition figures being waged in Europe?  The forced closure of Magharibia TV is a simple example of the French position.

What is certain, and this is what the establishment wanted to hide, Gaid Salah was a sick man. The past year has been a hellish period for him. He was surrounded by physicians as he could not make a step without medical help. Looking at his performance during the swearing ceremony of his chose president, Tebboune, Gaid Salah looked like he was reaching the end of his rope. The regime knew to what extent he was sick, hence turning the new president’s swearing ceremony into a day to honor the Junta Chief before he goes.  Gaid got himself a shiny medal, overshadowing the presidential ceremony. Few days later, a Defense Minister communique announced his death.

For the opposition, the man who will replace him, at least on the interim basis, is no better. Others in the opposition want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But Saïd Chengriha is not a young man either. Even assuming he has the good will to move the country to the right direction, the UAE, France, and others will be breathing down his neck and he could face the same problem his predecessor did. He can get sick on the job while they force him to remain active to ensure the regime survives.  Or can he really standup against the foreign lobbies and the rogue generals to really put in place a system that is respected by its people?  To be respected by his people, his first move should be to force the release of all political prisoners and rule the current government simply as a temporary caretaker and not an elected one.  He must ensure that the military withdraws from political life and that government will be handed over not to the imposed president Tebboune but to another dully elected government.  General Chengriha is an unknown entity, presented by several media as a “neutral” professional. But he has many detractors, opposition figures say he is no better than any of the 20-or-so generals who surrounded and aided Gaid Salah in establishing a military dictatorship in Algeria.

The death of Gaid Salah is presented by many as a disaster. While uncertainty looms, it is also a moment of hope that logic and good sense prevails. But we have to remain realistics. The outside forces sitting in Abu Dhabi, Paris and elsewhere and their cronies in Algeria, will likely put up a serious fight to keep the north African nation as poor and miserable as they’ve always wanted.

Algeria’s military chief Gaid Salah, guardian of opaque regime

Algiers, Dec 23, 2019 (AFP – By Aymeric Vincenot) – As chief of Algeria’s military for a record 15 years, General Ahmed Gaid Salah became the country’s de facto leader after longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in April. His death from a heart attack at age 79, announced by state television on Monday, threatened to deepen Algeria’s political crisis at the end of a turbulent year. Many saw the general, a veteran of Algeria’s war for independence from France, as the guardian of the system in power ever since. When Bouteflika appointed him in 2004 to head the armed forces, the backbone of Algeria’s opaque regime, he became one of the North African country’s most powerful men.

For years, Gaid Salah unwaveringly supported Bouteflika, even backing the octogenarian’s unpopular bid early this year for a fifth term in office — the announcement that sparked unprecedented mass demonstrations. In early April, Gaid Salah called on his boss to resign. Bouteflika quit the same day. That left the army chief effectively in control of the country.

– Soldier since age 17 –

Born in 1940 in Batna region, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Algiers, Gaid Salah spent more than six decades in the armed forces. At the age of 17, he joined Algeria’s National Liberation Army in its gruelling eight-year war against French colonial forces. When the country won independence in 1962 after 132 years as a French colony, he joined the army, attended a Soviet military academy and rose through the ranks. Gaining a reputation for a hot temper, he commanded several regions before becoming chief of Algeria’s land forces at the height of a decade-long civil war pitting the regime against Islamist insurgents.

In 2004, as he hit retirement age, he was picked by Bouteflika to replace overall chief of staff Mohamed Lamari, who had opposed the president’s quest for a second mandate. By 2013, the general had helped Bouteflika dismantle the feared DRS intelligence agency, sending its powerful head Mohamed “Toufik” Mediene into retirement two years later.

Today the DRS is defanged, Bouteflika is off the scene and many of his allies, including his formerly powerful brother, are being prosecuted for graft as part of investigations encouraged by Gaid Salah. Following Bouteflika’s departure, the military chief, also deputy defence minister, was undisputedly in charge of Algeria and issued veiled threats to demonstrators.

He exercised considerable influence over the justice department and the civilian administration of interim president Abdelkader Bensalah. He was also seen as close to new president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who took office last week following a vote bitterly opposed by protesters. Tebboune, who after his election had awarded Gaid Salah the National Order of Merit — Algeria’s highest honour — on Monday announced three days of national mourning. He also named General Said Chengriha as interim military chief of staff, state news channel Algeria 3 reported.

– No concessions –

Weeks ago Flavien Bourrat, a researcher at the Institut de Recherche Strategique de l’Ecole Militaire (Inserm) in Paris, said Gaid Salah enjoyed relatively unified support within the army. But protesters, who initially praised him for his intervention to force Bouteflika’s resignation, began to despise the general. He had categorially rejected their key demands of deep reforms, the establishment of transitional institutions and the dismantling of the military-dominated regime. Indeed, he made virtually no concessions, and was the driving force behind a highly controversial December 12 election that brought Tebboune to power. The poll was widely rejected by protesters, who argued no vote could be valid until regime figures had left office and reforms were carried out. Moussaab Hammoudi of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris said weeks before Gaid Salah’s death that he was “not a great strategist.” “He acts like a brutal soldier,” he said. “For him, Algeria is a huge barracks, and making a concession is a weakness.”