Algerian president leaves government unchanged

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika left his government almost unchanged on Monday in a reshuffle following his election to a third consecutive term. Bouteflika, 72, had been urged by some commentators to bring new blood into the government to help tackle challenges that include a lingering al Qaeda insurgency, a fall in oil prices and high unemployment in the North African energy producer.
A statement from Bouteflika's office said Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia would keep his job along with all other members of the cabinet except minister without portfolio Soltani Bouguerra. No replacement was named for Bouguerra who is the leader of a party loyal to Bouteflika.
Under Algerian law, the prime minister and the rest of the government are required to step down after a presidential election. Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil was among those who remained in their posts.
Bouteflika, a veteran of Algeria's war for independence from colonial ruler France, won an April 9 presidential election with 90.24 percent of the vote.He campaigned on a platform of continuity and stability. His supporters credit him with steering Algeria out of a civil conflict in the 1990s that killed 200,000 people, according to estimates from international non-governmental organisations.
Reuters

Algeria tightens rules for foreign investment

Algeria plans to take a majority stake in any future investment project involving foreign capital, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said yesterday, outlining a measure which already applies to much of the oil and gas sector. "Regarding investment projects involving foreign capital Algeria intends to take a majority of the capital in accordance with its national interests and means," said a statement from the prime minister's office. It did not say when the measure would take effect nor did it define what types of investment the measure would apply to.

In the energy sector, state energy conglomerate Sonatrach has the right to a 51 per cent stake in any exploration and production and downstream activity. The north African country of 34 million is an important oil and gas supplier to Europe. Outside of the oil and gas sector, foreign investors at present can own a majority stake in their Algeria ventures. Until recently, some of these foreign investors could repatriate 100pc of their profits.

The main non-energy foreign investors are Egypt's Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction Industries and Qatar Telecommunications.

Analysts said yestereday's statement appeared to be in line with comments made on July 26 by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in which he attacked poor management of foreign investment and said he had been disappointed by its results. Speaking to local government officials, Bouteflika said weaknesses in the implementation of economic policy had allowed some foreign investors to profit at Algeria's expense and not reinvest earnings in the country.

Africa's second-largest country is struggling to reform a Soviet-style command economy dependent on oil and gas, dominated by loss-making state banks and blighted by red tape, corruption, inadequate access to credit and a weak private sector. Yesterday's statement marks a further tightening of the investment regime in Algeria following the imposition of a requirement on investors last month to reinvest locally a part of their profits to the value of any tax breaks they received. Starting this year, investors have four years in which to make the reinvestment, and those which do not comply will have to repay any tax breaks and be subject to a fine.

Guld-daily

Top 2 Al-Qaida leader killed in Algeria

Algerian security forces killed the deputy leader of the Maghreb offshoot of Al-Qaeda in a clash in the east of the country, newspapers reported Wednesday. Zobeir Harkat, better known as Sofiane Fassila, was killed Sunday in fighting in the troubled Kabylie region, said the reports, which were not immediately confirmed by authorities.

Harkat, 32, was considered the main bomb-maker for Al-Qaeda in Maghreb, the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) which changed its name last year and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

The media reports said he was believed to have been behind several suicide bomb attacks since April, including one while President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was visiting the eastern town of Batna early in September.

Newspapers said two other armed Islamists were killed in the clash with Harkat on a road from Boghni to Tizi Ouzou, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Algiers.

Hassan Hattab, the founder of the GSPC from which the extremist group emerged, surrendered to security forces on September 22 after a reported deal to benefit from Bouteflika's policy of national reconcilation. Hattab and Fassila were close for some time, the media said.

AFP

"Human bomb" tactic poses test for Algeria security

Reuters

A suicide bombing in Algeria that killed 19 people marked two worrying developments for the energy exporting country's bid to end attacks by armed groups seeking a purist Islamic state. The blast was the first time a suicide attacker in Algeria has detonated a bomb strapped to his body, rather than using a car bomb, Algerians say.

The attack was also the first apparently timed to coincide with a visit by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The bomber blew himself up in a crowd waiting to greet Bouteflika in the town of Batna 430 km (270 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers shortly before the president arrived. At the very least the timing of the blast suggests the town was selected for attack for maximum publicity. At worst, it may have been an assassination attempt, analysts say.

"I am not surprised by the attack. But what surprises me is that al Qaeda is using a human bomb for the first time (in Algeria)," said Liess Boukra, a top Algerian security expert. "This is a real concern. Facing human bomb attacks is not easy to counter."

Bouteflika was quick to blame the rebels, denouncing them as "criminals" trying to scuttle national reconciliation, a government policy aimed at ending 15 years of fighting between the army and Islamist groups trying to overthrow the state.

Under the policy Bouteflika had offered several amnesties under which thousands of rebels have surrendered, leading to a steady reduction in political violence in recent years. A recent high-profile surrender was of Benmessaoud Abdelkader, a former al Qaeda commander in the Saharan south who said others had also quit because they disagreed with a spate of suicide car bomb attacks earlier in 2007. He said the blasts, the first time Algerian rebels have used suicide car bombs as a military tactic, displeased many of the guerrillas because they had resulted in civilian deaths.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings in Algiers on April 11 that killed 33 people, and for a July 11 suicide truck blast east of Algiers that killed eight soldiers. But despite the reports of rebel disagreements on the wisdom of suicide attacks, a hard core of several hundred rebels continues to fight, most notably in mountains east of Algiers. Analysts said the rebels remained a lingering threat.

"Bouteflika was targeted since he is the symbol of national reconciliation, a policy that succeeded in significantly weakening the armed groups, particularly al Qaeda," editor of Eshorouk daily and security analyst Anis Rahmani said. "I am predicting more big attacks. Al Qaeda will do whatever possible to punish the Algerian people, who continue to support Bouteflika's amnesty offer to end the conflict," Rahmani said.

Niger asks Algeria to help fight desert rebels

Reuters
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's prime minister and military chiefs met neighbouring Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday to discuss cross-border cooperation against Tuareg-led rebels in Niger's desert north, officials said.

The rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) has killed at least 36 soldiers and taken dozens hostage since launching an insurgency in February to demand greater autonomy for the vast region around the ancient Saharan caravan town of Agadez.

The government refuses to negotiate with the group, saying they are drug traffickers and common bandits, but has called on its neighbours to try to stop the flow of weapons, fuel and food thought to be reaching them from other Saharan armed groups. Some officials and civil society organisations in Niger have accused Libya of supporting the insurgents, who have also targeted mining interests in a region which contains some of the world's largest uranium deposits as well as reserves of oil.

"The delegation has not gone to ask Algeria to play any sort of mediation role, as was the case in the past, but to explain the situation and ask its authorities to bolster border security," one senior military official in Niger told Reuters. "Of course, if Algeria can convince the authors of these attacks that Niger will not negotiate and that they should put down their weapons, that would be very helpful," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Niger's Prime Minister Seyni Oumarou, Foreign Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou, armed forces chief General Moumouni Boureima, and President Mamadou Tandja's national security advisor General Abdou Kaza were among the delegation. The group was received on Sunday by Bouteflika, according to Algeria's official APS news agency.

Algeria has in the past acted as a mediator between Tuareg rebels in northern Niger and the government. The light-skinned nomads, famed for their blue turbans, staged a rebellion in the 1990s to demand more autonomy from a black African dominated government following a brutal clampdown by the security forces in which scores of civilians were killed.

Most Tuareg groups signed a peace deal in 1995 which promised more development for the north, strengthened local government and promised the incorporation of thousands of former fighters into the security forces.

The rebel movement, which says it numbers close to 2,000 fighters, argues that those peace accords have not been fully respected and that the north remains marginalised. The government says the vast majority of Tuareg demands from the 1990s have been met.

Algeria: Hungarian President wraps up his official visit to Algeria.

Algerian President Bouteflika on the left and Hungarian President on the right Today was the last day of the Hungarian president’s official visit to Algeria. Before winding up his visit, he visited early today,the “Raias” ancestral Palace or "Bastion 23" belonging to the old district of the Casbah (Algiers), classified by Unesco as part of the world cultural heritage. On the spot, Hungarian President LAszlo Solyom listened attentively to the explanations of a guide about Algeria’s history from the Phoenicians’ , Romans' and Berbers' eras to the Ottoman epoch and until the French colonisation.

It’s worth recalling that Mr. LAszlo Solyom arrived in Algeria on Saturday. During his three-day visit, he went to Ouled Moussa village in the wilaya or province of Batna (eastern Algeria), one of the most important sites in the Algerian revolution history. He also visited the house where Algerian freedom-fighters gathered to announce the outbreak of the national revolutionary struggle on November 1st, 1954 against the French colonial yoke.

The Hungarian President also went to the south where he laid a wreath on the memorial of Béla Bartók, a late Hungarian music composer. President LAszlo Solyom said on Saturday: “It’s time for both countries to enhance their ancestral relationships.” In this regard, he indicated that people in Algeria were now living in peace and stability adding Hungary had managed to settle its domestic affairs. Thus, it’s time for Algeria and Hungary to reinforce the relationships between the two countries, he said.

Furthermore,the Hungarian President confirmed that Algeria and Hungary had agreed on the signing of an agreement providing for the setting up of a joint cooperation commission. The Hungarian president said the two countries would sign "in the coming days several accords on culture and other fields including security and the police".

In a dinner banquet hosted by Algerian President Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika in honour of Mr. LAszlo Solyom, President Bouteflika stressed the necessity of a reinforcement of Algerian-Hungarian dialogue and consultation regarding all questions of common interest and bilateral cooperation. The Hungarian President was seen off on his departure from the International airport of Algiers by the head of state Mr Abdellaziz Bouteflika.

Echorouk