Chadli Benjedid: My conscience took over my political ambition

The former Algerian president Chadli Benjedid went into a deep coma and was admitted to the intensive care unit at the military hospital of Ain Naadja, sources close to his family revealed.

Chadli Benjedid was born in April 14, 1929 in the province of Taref , eastern Algeria and worked in his youth at the tobacco factory “ TabaCoop” before joining the revolutionary movement in 1955.

During the revolutionary war , the man was pointed at the head of eastern military base then, deputy head of the northern military operations. At the independence he was the first officer of the eastern base to enter the Algerian territory with the view to facilitating access to the military troops stationed at the frontiers.

He was then appointed head of the of the sixth military district, the present fifth military district base din the province of Constantine, eastern Algeria and supervised the evacuation of the French troops from this Northern Constantine.

In 1964 Chadli Benjedid was appointed commander in chief of the second military district in Oran, western Algeria, took part to the military coup of 1965 and aborted the one conducted by Taher Zebiri in 1967.

During the 1970s he was a staunch opponent of the reforms initiated by the late president Houari Boumedienne especially in the agriculture and industrial sectors. He considered that land should be given to the people who worked it.

Despite his fierce opposition to Houari Boumedienne, the man was one of his intimates and kept an unflagging friendship with the late president until his death.

Once in office he started an iconoclastic policy that faced fierce opposition from the barons of the old guard. One of the measures consisted in breaking loose from the traditional ally the Soviet Union and an historic trip to Brussels, after Italy then the United Sates in 1986.

13 years after taking office, he was forced to resign in the wake of the troubles that swept through the country in 1992 living room to a directorate to take the destiny of the country. History will record his famous words before living power” When I had to choose between power and conscience, I chose the second one”.