Algeria: Dr. Makri prevented from leaving the country
On his way to Malaysia to prepare for the congress of the "Thought and Civilisation" forum, of which he is secretary general, after a one-day stopover in Doha to meet the Palestinian leader of Hamas Ismaïl Henia, the former secretary general of the Movement for a Society for Peace (MSP) was surprised by an ISTN.
It was only today that Dr Abderrazak Makri finally revealed to the national public the measure he has been under since 28 November. As he stated in a statement published this morning on his personal blog, "after unsuccessful attempts to resolve this problem by contacting the competent authorities", the former secretary general of the MSP has finally understood, as he pointed out, "that in Algeria the Constitution and the laws are being trampled underfoot and that this measure (the ISTN) has been taken without consulting the person concerned and without the slightest respect for the citizen.
He stresses that he is not the subject of any legal proceedings and that no one has reproached him for anything. What he discovers today is nothing new. Thousands of Algerians are in this situation. And he knew it. But as he was on good terms with the authorities, he did not say a word.
Dr. Abderrazak Makri was astonished to discover the infamy of the ISTN, which affected thousands of Algerians, without showing the slightest reaction or compassion towards the victims of this iniquitous measure. He has always enjoyed the sympathy of the rulers, belonging to a political party that claims to be in opposition, although he was part of the presidential coalition for 11 years of Bouteflika's reign. A party that soon complied with the order to change its name because of its Islamist connotations. It changed its name from HAMAS (Harakat el-moujtama' el-islami), which stands for the Islamic Society Movement, to HAMS (remove the "A") to become Harakat moujtama' esselm (Peace Society Movement).
It should be remembered that Dr. Abderrazak Makri has never expressed the slightest disapproval of the abuses suffered by thousands of Algerians. More than 3,000 prisoners of conscience have been imprisoned in the four years that the Tebboune-Chengriha duo have been in power. Thousands of Algerians have been affected by this ISTN, which he discovered 2 days ago, although it has become a common practice that has turned Algeria into a huge prison from which it is forbidden to leave without any reason.
This man has always avoided any confrontation with the rulers and any opposition to their repressive human rights and socio-economic policies. In his public statements, he never ceases to express the total harmony of his party's positions with those of the government. He has always applauded all the decisions taken by those in power and has affirmed that "his political party is ready to cooperate with the political forces within the framework of national consensus". This is what he said on 10 June 2022 from the town of Biskra in south-eastern Algeria. Six days earlier, from M'sila, he had called for "efforts to be made after the next legislative elections to reach a national pact that will bring together the political class".
Elected in May 2013 to head Algeria's main Islamist party, which is subordinate to the government, Abderrazak Makri spent ten years at the head of the MSP, created in the 1990s to counter the Islamic Salvation Front. Its main founder, the late Mahfoud Nahnah, had made numerous trips abroad to champion the cause of the coup generals who had paralysed the electoral process in January 1992.
Today, Algerian public opinion expresses no support for Abderrazak Makri, as we read in a tweet from exiled Algerian journalist Walid Kebir, who wrote: "So is the armed gang you defended. Here you are confronted with the reality of the military. Whoever defends a repressive regime has no right to complain when it is repressed". Abderrazak Makri and his MSP comrades should reflect on what happened to him on 28 November at Houari Boumediene international airport in Algiers, when an air and border police officer turned him away like a bastard, telling him that he was forbidden to leave "the great prison of Algeria". He was saddened, but the political party he had led for ten years did not issue a statement expressing solidarity with him.