Algeria at the crossroads
A political exile in France, Hichem Aboud is a former officer in the Algerian army and now a leading journalist. At a time when the European Parliament has adopted a resolution on the shortcomings of press freedom and the repression of journalists in Algeria, Atalayar wanted to know the opinion of Aboud himself.
A court in Algiers has just sentenced you to 10 years in prison and issued an international arrest warrant for "threatening the security of the state" and "public order" without providing any credible evidence. Why such severe sentences and why now?
This is not my first conviction by the Algerian courts with the sole aim of silencing me. Not counting those handed down between 1992 and 2011, I count a total of 77 years in prison from 2013 to the recent conviction that has just taken place. The latest ones are all related to the accusation of terrorism with the aim of getting international arrest warrants against me accepted, and they amount to seven. May I remind you that I am listed as a "terrorist" in the Official Journal of the Algerian Republic, in issue 11 of 13 February 2022, along with a good number of political activists. In other words, the Algerian political-military regime is sparing no means to ask for my extradition and to silence me.
Is this the same objective of this latest conviction?
Well, the latest conviction actually has the main objective of shutting down my YouTube portal, which has more than 622,000 subscribers and is followed all over the world. In the text of the condemnation addressed to the YouTube administration, it is said that I disseminate through this portal "terrorist ideas" and that I call for "a popular uprising to destabilise public security in Algeria".
Is the judiciary really independent in Algeria?
First of all, the judiciary should really exist. What we have is simply a judicial apparatus that serves to carry out the orders given to it by those in power. One example: the sentence handed down against me by the Chreraga court in February 2021 for "having divulged confidential information about retired General Khaled Nezzar and his family". The complaint was officially lodged by General Nezzar's son, Sofiane Nezzar, who, by the way, was committed by his father to a psychiatric hospital, although he is actually in his right mind. Sofiane never filed a complaint against me. He was punished by his father for having spread the photo of his mother on his Facebook account denouncing his father for having killed his wife with two shots in the head in 1993. For my part, I limited myself to disseminating screenshots of Sofiane Nezzar's Facebook page. In Algeria, we call the judicial apparatus "justice by telephone". All sentences and decisions are handed down by telephone.
Lately, arrests and prosecutions of journalists have multiplied. Is the authorities afraid of the free press?
It has a phobia of three things: the press, football stadiums and mosques. While it has managed to tame the press by monopolising the advertising manna, which is essentially state-owned, and by forcing private sector advertisers, both domestic and foreign, to spread their advertising messages only in the media, while repressing the few voices that are still free in Algeria, it has not managed to strangle the stadiums and mosques.
Are they so afraid of football?
Look. For three years now, the Algerian football cup competition has been abolished. Because it is an occasion and an obligation for the President of the Republic, the members of the government and the senior army officers to attend the final of this competition and greet the 22 protagonists by presenting the trophy to the winner. As they are not unaware of their unpopularity and know very well that the peaceful popular revolt of 22 February 2019, called Hirak, came out of the football stadiums and that their presence there is not welcome, they suppressed the competition.
To this end, they have also decreed that matches be played without spectators in order to limit the capacity of the stadiums. But after two years of experience with closed doors, they limited the rule to clubs in the capital, and in the end only the very popular team Muludia Club d'Alger (MCA) will play without spectators. And although football is first and foremost a spectacle, the Algerian authorities have found a way to make the capital's big derby, which has always attracted huge crowds, play in front of 9,000 spectators in a stadium for 80,000 people.
And the other phobia?
It's mosques. I cite two cases. Since his installation in the El Muradia Palace, seat of the Presidency of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has never gone to a mosque, as required by protocol, on the occasion of religious festivities and ceremonies. Another example is the closure of the Grand Mosque of Algiers, which has cost the public treasury 1.5 billion dollars. Construction was completed three years ago. It should have been inaugurated by Abdelaziz Bouteflika before his ouster in April 2019. The most humorous part of this story is the opening of the prayer room during the month of Ramadan for four prayers. But for the fifth prayer it is still closed because of the risk of a crowd after breaking the fast. So they have decreed that only four prayers are to be held, out of the five prayers prescribed by Islam. This is an Islam specific to Algerian power.
The Algerian regime, like other journalists, portrays you as an "agent of the enemy", "disturbing an area of peaceful development at the service of the people", while the regime's summit is full of crises and settling of scores. Why?
Algerian power suffers from a chronic deficit of legitimacy and popularity, and tries to impose itself by repression and discrediting any discordant voice. It focuses on the nationalist fibre, but without taking it on board. Proof of this is that when I sent Tebboune and his chief of staff, General Said Chengriha, by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, documents proving that the father of retired General Khaled Nezzar had taken up arms against the armed revolution of 1 November 1954, they were as mute as tombs. Just as when I reminded them that the leaders of the Algerian Revolution had found refuge, aid and assistance in Morocco and Tunisia during the War of Liberation, they turned a deaf ear and adopted the same position as colonial France, which accused the revolutionary leaders of being agents of foreign powers. The settling of scores between the clans in power is a Polichinela secret. They regularly erupt in public through the arrests and imprisonment of generals in the military high command.
Having made a military career in Algeria, you know the problems of this institution from the inside. People who read and listen to you know this, is that why they want to silence you?
Obviously, my past as an officer in the Algerian army means that I am highly respected within the military institution. Especially within the security services, which have files on all military personnel and can clearly confirm that I have been an officer of integrity and competence. My opponents in power have never managed to find the slightest trace of anything that could tarnish my image. Consequently, I am a source of annoyance because of my moral integrity and the respect accorded to me by NCOs and officers at all levels of the military hierarchy. That is why so many people express their support for me, regularly supplying me with information that does a great disservice to the government.
Some people think that Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune wants to liberalise and democratise the country, but that the military will not allow him to do so. Do you agree?
I don't agree with this thesis at all. Tebboune never dreamed of being in the first seats of power, but only of being a good puppet. He has neither a political programme nor an economic programme. When, at the beginning of his mandate, he sent me a message through a friend inviting me to return to the country and lead a quiet life, I replied with another written message containing a programme that was easy to implement and which would open the doors of history wide open for him.
What did you propose to him?
In short, I asked him to release all those arrested for expressing their opinion, to announce an amnesty for all those arrested and exiled as victims of the repressive policies of the 1990s, to dissolve parliament and organise free and democratic legislative elections, and to crown it with the organisation of an early presidential election by submitting his own resignation. I concluded that the completion of these tasks would make him history and that if he stood in the early presidential election he would have a good chance of winning it by a landslide because the people would recognise him. And in the event that he did not want to retain the presidency, he would have won the esteem of an entire people and their recognition for eternity. And what did he reply to this friend who passed on my message to him? "He is asking too much". I prefer not to comment on this reply.
The Algerian regime reacted violently against the Spanish government when it took a position on the Western Sahara issue last year, stating that 'the autonomy proposed by the King of Morocco' was the only credible and realistic solution. Algiers recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations, froze economic relations and broke the bilateral treaty signed twenty years ago between the two countries. Why the strong reaction?
The Algerian regime reacts to each other's positions on the question of Western Sahara arbitrarily, according to the client's wishes. It withdraws its ambassador from the Spaniards who approve of the autonomy plan, freezes the good neighbourhood and cooperation agreement, thereby endangering Algeria's economic interests. But when faced with the Americans who do not limit themselves to supporting the autonomy plan and directly recognise the Moroccan ownership of Western Sahara, Algiers looks the other way. The same goes for the Gulf Arab countries that have opened consulates in the two cities of Dakhla and Laayoune. Nor does Algiers react when the Gulf Cooperation Council publishes a document warning against any attack on the territorial integrity of the Moroccan kingdom. The message is clearly addressed to the Algerian power, which pretends it is not with it. These inconsistencies in positions, both on the Western Sahara issue and on Palestine, only discredit the rulers in Algiers, who do not act out of principle but out of interests - narrow, sordid interests.
Doesn't the attitude towards Spain and the United States reflect double standards?
That is what I have just explained to you. Worse not only towards the United States of America, but also towards the Gulf countries, and recently also towards Portugal. In this case, it simply summoned the Portuguese ambassador in Algiers and then issued a communiqué in which it ignored the purpose of the call, which was Portugal's support for the autonomy plan.
Algeria has broken off diplomatic relations with Morocco, among other reasons, accusing it of supporting movements that the Algiers regime describes as "terrorist", such as the MAK (Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia) and RACHAD. However, the State Department, which regularly monitors the situation in the world, considers these movements to be "political" and not "terrorist". Are there other reasons for this breakdown in relations between Algeria and Morocco?
The reason for the rupture of relations with Morocco has nothing to do with support for these two political opposition movements. Moreover, Morocco neither openly nor secretly supports the MAK or RACHAD. If anyone should be held accountable in Algiers, it is the French and Swiss side. The MAK's headquarters are in France, and almost every week its militants go out in large numbers to demonstrate in the streets of Algiers, without Algeria saying anything. The leader of the MAK, Ferhat Mehenni, is currently in the United States for a month-long visit at the invitation of numerous American political and cultural figures. He was publicly received in the Senate. And the Canadian Parliament recently adopted a resolution calling on the Algerian government to put an end to the repression against the Algerian population in general and Kabylia in particular.
The rupture of relations with Morocco and this incessant anti-Moroccan escalation, often marked by acts that are childish and absurd, is explained by the need to maintain the thesis of the "external danger" that can only be represented by Morocco, in order to keep the Algerian people under the pressure of the supposed fight for sovereignty and the pseudo-anti-terrorist struggle represented by the MAK and RACHAD.
Algeria claims to have the ambitions of a mini-great power at the international level, as evidenced by its demand to join the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), when in reality it has neither the means nor the development necessary to do so. Why this utopian ambition to join the court of the great powers?
This BRICS membership business is just for local consumption and to occupy Algerian public opinion with an imaginary economic development, when they are not even capable of managing the local market to ensure the flow of basic necessities. The regime wants to measure itself against the emerging economies that far outstrip it: let it manage to stop the shortages of milk, semolina, eggs and oil that cause long queues in the shops before talking about the BRICS! Moreover, Tebboune has no idea whatsoever about economics to talk about the BRICS.
Do you think Algeria and Spain can turn the page and go back to the way things were?
I hope so for the good of the Algerian people. You should know that the freezing of economic relations with Spain has caused many distressing situations for the population. In Algeria, teeth cannot be extracted for lack of anaesthesia imported from Spain. The production of driving licences and national identity cards has stopped and they have reverted to the old system, because the raw materials used to produce the documents were imported from Spain.
Moreover, Algeria's leaders will not dare to go any further in their escalation against Spain for their personal interests. Many of them own real estate on the Iberian peninsula. This is the case of General Khaled Nezzar who owns a luxury flat in Barcelona and a 6,500 m2 plot of land in Tarragona; of Generals Haddad Abdelkader alias Nacer El Djen, and Hamid Oubelaïd alias Hocine Boulahya, both belonging to the secret services, who own real estate and whose families are based in Spain.
Algiers knows that without Spain's material support (food, cars, ambulances, health, help for children, education, facilities for residence and nationality, accommodation and work in Spain) the Sahrawi refugees would not be able to survive another winter. And yet they continue to call Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a "traitor". Do they think that, if the right wing comes to power in the next elections, they will win the game?
Look, it is public knowledge that the Algerian leaders have never been able to measure the seriousness of many of the decisions they take that endanger the country's economy. Nor do they care about the risk they may incur for Algerians, let alone for the Sahrawi refugees. The question currently being acutely asked is: what will become of the "Sahrawi refugees" who do not meet the requirements of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to be able to obtain Spanish nationality for those born before 1976 and their children? So far, neither the Algerian leadership nor Polisario officials have raised this crucial question. The equation will change completely with this measure awaiting implementation. The Polisario will be emptied of its substance, and refugee status will no longer be recognised for the Spaniards who will have nothing to do in Tindouf.
Algiers has blackmailed the Spanish government by cutting its natural gas supply in half and by closing the MEDGAZ pipeline linking Algeria and Spain via Morocco. However, Spain resisted and looked for other suppliers, particularly the United States. Algeria then turned to Italy to sell it the gas previously destined for Spain, making the EU believe that it is capable of replacing Russia in gas supplies. What do you think of this?
This behaviour has exposed the childishness of a regime that has no arguments to make neighbouring countries accept its theses. These theses are obsolete and completely outdated. A regime that engages in blackmail has no place on the world stage. Its lack of lucidity only makes it look ridiculous in the eyes of the nations, and Algerian citizens, who are the first to suffer from such clumsiness, are rightly questioning the passivity of European Union states in the face of this kind of behaviour.
Spanish public opinion, which has long shown great admiration for Algeria and its people, is now bewildered. Every week there are reports of a new minister or a new general in the army, the Gendarmerie or the secret services being arrested, tried and imprisoned. What is really going on in Algeria? What is the reason for this institutional instability?
It is a descent into hell for a country that has written one of the most beautiful pages in the history of humanity by the sacrifice consented to by a tenth of its population in order to regain its freedom. A history that has aroused the admiration of the enemy rather than that of the friend.
Unfortunately, this country has fallen into the hands of men who have established vandalism as a system. And I speak of hooliganism (voyoucratie), weighing my words carefully. What is a hooligan if not the one who does not respect the law, and who does not give a damn what others think of his misconduct. And also he who respects neither friends nor neighbours. This is what characterises the men in power in Algeria today. If there are so many prime ministers (three), ministers (half a hundred), dozens of businessmen and more than a hundred generals and senior officers serving long prison sentences for corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power and so on, is it not enough to describe the Algerian regime as vandalistic (voyoucratie)? But be warned, those outside prison who govern are no less guilty than their counterparts behind bars. Some were in the same circles, and others served under the orders of the current prison guests. This fuss is just a settling of scores on a strictly personal basis.
I am struck by the fact that the Algerian regime insists on always looking for the "enemy" in the north, France and Spain in particular, when it is surrounded by incandescent borders with countries in deep crisis such as Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia and even Mauritania, not to mention the undeclared war with Morocco. Would it not be better to tackle regional problems first, as Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia have done, by making peace with its neighbours?
The Algerian regime has no interest in living in a peaceful regional space. It is a regime that feeds on violence, hatred and crises. Living in peace means investing, working, managing. The current leaders do not know how to do this. Their only speciality is plundering, pillaging and plundering Algeria's immense wealth. This regime is not only a danger to the Algerian people, whom it has reduced to indecent poverty, but it is also a danger to the immediate environment and to the entire Mediterranean basin. It is a factor of instability and war. It is a regime that is permanently on a war footing. Its $18 billion arms budget is proof of this. Next year this budget will be even higher, while the Algerian citizen has to get up early in the morning to queue for a hypothetical bag of milk.
Do you believe in Algeria's democratic future, or is the Hirak already dead?
As long as there is life, there is hope. The Algerian people have accustomed us to cyclical revolts every ten years. But today, I don't think they will wait until 2028 or 2029 for a new revolutionary eruption. All the ingredients are in place for democratic change. All that is missing is clear international support to oust this regime that has been denounced in the two years of Hirak. Support, especially from NGOs and human rights organisations, to protect the people from the ferocious and inhuman repression of a regime that spares no means to crush any revolt that threatens its very existence.
