***Algerian Rebels Said to Reject Amnesty http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/international/africa/02algeria.html?oref=login By REUTERS Published: October 2, 2005 ALGIERS, Oct. 1 (Reuters) - An Internet statement attributed to Algeria's largest outlawed Islamic militant group, aligned with Al Qaeda, says that it opposes amnesty in exchange for laying down its arms and that it will continue its jihad, or holy war. In a Sept. 29 referendum, Algerians approved a government offer of partial amnesty for combatants in a civil war that lasted more than a decade and claimed more than 100,000 lives, mostly those of civilians. "This vote is a waste of time," said the statement on an Islamist Web site, dated Sept. 27 and attributed to Abdelmalek Droukdal, also known as Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, the leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. "Algeria is not in need of a charter for peace and national reconciliation, but in need of a charter for Islam." It was the first time the Salafist Group had seemed to comment on the controversial amnesty project, but the statement's authenticity could not be immediately verified. The Salafist Group is on the United States' list of foreign terrorist organizations and has recently expanded its activities to neighboring countries. "The jihad will go on," the statement said. "We have promised God to continue the jihad and the combat." The conflict began after the army in 1992 canceled the second round of Algeria's first multiparty legislative election, which the Islamic Salvation Front was on course to win. The authorities estimate that only a few hundred rebels are still armed and fighting security forces. Most belong to the Salafist Group. At its height in the mid-1990's, up to 25,000 Islamists were involved in the insurgency. Many have since accepted amnesties, or been captured or killed. "There will be no peace and no reconciliation as long as Islam is not taken into consideration," said the statement attributed to Mr. Droukdal, which also praised Osama bin Laden and his deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Therein lies the root of the conflict: when the 'secular' forces (the French really more or less) saw that the people demanded an Islamist party in the first election in Algeria, they dismissed democracy as a whole because it didn't produce the desired results for the colonial power/elite class connected to the colonial power. So much for belief in 'democracy', huh?
