Colonel Tahar Zbiri: “Abdelmoumen Khalifa rebelled against his father Laroussi who left only a pharmacy as a legacy”

ANP former Army Colonel Tahar Zbiri and revolutionary figure Laroussi Khalifa have been bound by a solid friendship since the era of the struggle against French colonialism, after the latter joined the National Liberation Army by terminating his work in the French administration, and this friendship didn’t stop at the end of the French colonial occupation but continued until after Algeria’s hard-won independence.

This friendship between the two men strengthened significantly, with both families visiting each other from time to time. Colonel Tahar Zbiri said in this respect that Laroussi Khalifa used to visit him at his home with his wife and sons and he followed suit himself with his family members as part of exchange visits until the demise of Laroussi Khalifa himself and that of his spouse.

Referring to the enrolment of Laroussi Khalifa in the Algerian revolution, Mr Zbiri said: “I have known him during the Revolution which was being intensified when he joined the freedom-fighters’ ranks”.

“Deep nationalist values prompted Laroussi Khalifa to embrace the Algerian Revolution”

Colonel Tahar Zbiri extolled the moral attributes of late Laroussi Khalifa, stressing that the latter’s deep sense of nationalism and patriotism made him forsake his senior post within the French administration and join without any wavering the glorious Algerian Revolution against the harsh French colonial yoke until the country’s accession to freedom, independence and sovereignty on July 5^th 1962.

“Hailing both from the same region and sharing the same revolutionary objective, we became close friends throughout the revolution period and well after Algeria’s independence and until his death”, Colonel Zbiri asserted.

“Late Moudjahid Laroussi Khalifa was among the few lettered freedom-fighters of the Revolution”

Colonel Tahar Zbiri added that Laroussi Khalifa was one of the few educated and cultured mudjahidine in the triumphant revolution, stressing that  the revolution needed this kind of special educators and activists as the majority of Algerians at that time didn’t know how to read or to write because of the brutal and discriminatory colonial yoke which oppressed the entire Algerian population.

Colonel Tahar Zbiri also pointed out that late Laroussi Khalifa was very fluent in the French language contrary to Arabic which he set to improve because he’d studied at the French school, noting that he’d secured 24 diplomas in various disciplines.

“I disagreed with late President Houari Boumediene over Khalifa Laroussi’s proven abilities”

Colonel Tahar Zbiri further spoke about the relationship of Laroussi with late President Houari Boumediene saying: “The relationship of Laroussi Khalifa with late President Houari Boumedienne was good, although the latter was always intent on keeping his prestige as the all-powerful President even with government officials”.

“However, I disagreed overtly with Houari Boumediene after he sidelined Laroussi Khalifa from the composition of the new Government after the 1965 coup by telling him that Laroussi was an honest, dutiful, humble and highly-skillful personality which could give a lot to the nation while at the helm of a ministerial department but President Boumedienne then decided otherwise for murky reasons”, Colonel Tahar Zbiri further underscored.

“No comparison between late Khalifa Laroussi and his son Rafik Abdelmoumène Khalifa”

In response to our question about Rafik Abdelmoumène  Khalifa, the son of the late Mudjahid Laroussi Khalifa, Colonel Tahar Zbiri underlined that that there’s “no comparison at all between Khalifa Laroussi and his son Abdelmoumène Rafik Khalifa, explaining for that matter that late Laroussi Khalifa, the father, was spotless,  imbued with the nationalist spirit and very modest, leaving behind after his death only a pharmacy business as a legacy”.

He pointed out to this effect:  “I don’t understand what went wrong with his now-detained son Abdelmoumène Khalifa who recklessly steeped into a misguided and mindless youth arena which led him astray together with other ill-advised people”.