January 11, 2000
Web posted at: 3:39 PM EST (2039 GMT)

By reuters

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday granted a general amnesty to all members of the AIS, the armed wing of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), state-run radio said.

The amnesty was announced 48 hours before a deadline for rebels to surrender. It leaves two main radical groups -- the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Da'wa wal Djihad (Appeal and Struggle) -- as outlaws opposing the authorities.

"President Bouteflika has issued a general amnesty for Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) members in return for the dissolution of their organization," the radio said, quoting a statement from the president's office.

The opposition group FIS was outlawed in 1992.

The amnesty decision came one week after army officers met AIS leaders to work out details of an agreement to disband the group, which numbers thousands of fighters. Neither the AIS nor the government has given precise figures on the group's membership.

"The AIS committed itself to return to the authorities all weapons and other military means," the radio added, reading the presidential statement.

The AIS reached a peace accord with Bouteflika in June to end definitively its warfare against the state and offered to fight alongside the government troops against radical rebel factions still bent on violence, notably the GIA.

The accord hit a snag earlier this month when AIS leaders insisted on their fellow fighters being granted a full amnesty and other benefits, including financial compensation.

Bouteflika had offered a partial or total amnesty to all members of rebel factions who surrendered to the government under the terms of a law called the Civic Concord Law that went into effect July 13 and expires Thursday.

The government says more than 1,500 rebels already have given themselves up under the law. At the same time, Algeria's main radical guerrilla factions have stepped up their attacks.

They have killed more than 600 people, mostly civilians in remote areas or at bogus roadblocks, since July, according to official and newspaper reports.

Among the victims were 200 people killed in the holy month of Ramadan, which ended last week. Radical rebels consider the fasting month to be an auspicious period to increase attacks.

The level of violence, which started nearly eight years ago, has waned considerably since the early days of the conflict. As late as 1997, at least 1,200 people were slaughtered during the holy month of Ramadan.

Turning the tide of violence, Algeria's military and armed forces have better adapted to fighting the Islamic radicals.

At the same time, many civilians who originally supported the cause for a purist Islamic state have been horrified by the massacres of civilians, including children and pregnant women.

Algeria has been racked by brutal civil strife since early 1992, when the authorities scrapped a general election in which the FIS had taken a commanding lead.

Bouteflika, who set his priority as restoring peace to the country, says 100,000 people have been killed in the violence since then.