Interview- FIS ex-member: Hamrouche pushed FIS to destroy Chadli to succeed him (part 6-7)
(part 6-7)
Was there any person out of the party who could influence Abbassi?
Cheikh Rached Ghanouchi was living in Algiers at that time. He advised him. Abbassi gave him an ironical answer, saying: “Those who are sitting in the beach and those who are in the deep sea are not the same.” He wanted to say that Ghanouchi was not knowledgeable about Algeria’s affairs and he should not have intervened. I remember that Abdellah Jaballah asked Abbassi whether he knew about the end of the strike. Abbassi told him he knew about the beginning but he had no idea about its ending.
Did the FIS stop dialogue with authorities?
No. Actually, I contacted intelligence senior officers as they were closer to decision makers. I asked them to put pressure to revise the law on elections because it would lead to a disaster. I told them they gave Abbassi a justification to cause uncontrollable unrest in the country. I also told them we would handle Abbassi’s problem at the consultation council but they had to ban all those laws which opened door to clash.
Who were those officers?
They are intelligence senior officers. I met them alone and I wrote a detailed report about that to the consultation council.
What did they promise you?
They said the law was voted by Parliament and it was over. I realized that authorities were not aware about the catastrophe and did not try to find solutions. I met some officials who told me they did not imagine that the situation would go viral.
Did Ali Belhadj stand by Abbassi Madani’s side against you?
When the police entered in clashes with protesters, Abbassi called for self-defense. The strike started a day before the launching of the electoral campaign for the June 2nd’s legislatives.
On the third day of the strike, Abbassi got up early and started looking for Ali Belhadj. I was told he talked to him alone in a beach and put pressure on him. When we met, Abbassi did not utter a word. He pushed Ali Belhadj to take the flour. We expected that he would say wise words to restore stability. The FIS’ man No 1 said: “I smell the Paradise.” At that time, we realized that a blood bath was coming.
Why did wise commands support the clash choice?
Bachir Fakih and me said no to Abbassi and his supporters. Some commands could not face him. As for his supporters, they were looking for positions. They thought the Islamic State would be established in summer as Ababssi was saying. Because of that, they thought they would be ministers while the blood bath had started.
Who were Abbassi’s supporters?
They were: Ali Djeddi, Abdelkader Boukhemkhem, late Hachani and Abderezzak Redjam. They wanted to be ministers in the Islamic government.
At that time, dialogue was stopped with authorities?
Hamrouche rejected any meeting with Abbassi. Following the army’s intervention, Hamrouche received Abbassi provided that media would not cover that. I think it was a dialogue of the deaf. Each part told the other do whatever you want. Yet, the meeting between Abbassi and General Ismail Ammari was different and better.
What did General Ammari tell Ababssi?
He told him they were playing with fire and there was a red line. It was a clear warning from the army because Hamrouche and Abbassi were really playing with fire and endangering the country. They did not even try to hold a serious dialogue.
So, you hold Hamrouche responsible for the unrest as well?
Hamrouche felt that Chadli was tired and was about to resign. He thought the departure of Chadli would open door to him for being president.
Some said you sealed a deal with the regime to show you opposition to the FIS on TV.
That’s wrong. If it was a deal, we would have stayed in the FIS because we would have served authorities more from the party itself. Twenty-two years after those events, all our expectations came true.
Few months later, you were appointed as religious affairs minister. Some believes that it was the price you had got from the deal.
I told you it was not a deal. Many people were not as courageous as us to do what we did to wash hands but they agreed with us. The police did not arrest all the FIS members. Only 8 who were jailed. The rest were free because their positions were against violence.
How did Abbassi react when you appeared on TV?
Abbassi described us as traitors and tried to do something because we had an impact on the public opinion. Imagine if we did not warn the FIS’ 800,000 members, most of them would have carried out armed attacks. Algeria would have been done. Yet, all of them were wise and did not want to use violence which killed more than 200,000 Algerians.
But Abbassi accused you of spying for authorities.
It was a normal reaction. Yet, those who carried out armed attacks were not the FIS’ 800,000 members. That what should people understand. We wash hands and the party members listened to us.
How was Ali Belhadj arrested?
The day after our appearance on TV, we met senior officials in government who told us about an arrest order against Abbassi, Belhadj and some members of the FIS. They were accused of causing unrest in the country. We asked them to not arrest them because that would lead to a disaster. We called Hachemi Sahnouni. He told us he can talk to Belhadj and convince him. A senior officer told us the decision had been made by the State and no one could stop it. Yet, he said he could postpone the arrest after the Friday’s Prayer. He promised to calm down the situation if there were no violence acts on that day.
So, the mission was handled by Hachemi Sahnouni.
Sahnouni went to Ali Belhadj’s house. “I am not crazy to incite people to violence. I promise you I will call for calm,” Belhadj told Sahnouni. Sahnouni told him that the arrest order was made.
After our statements, Belhadj went to the TV station and was arrested there. At the same time, the police arrested Abbassi Madani at the FIS’ headoffice. Boukhemkhem, Kamel Guemazi and Ali Djeddi were arrested as well.
How was Abbassi Madani arrested?
When Ali Belhadj was arrested, Abbassi was in his office at the party headoffice. He was told about the arrest of Belhadj. He ordered to not do anything until the case was examined. An hour later, the police came. Abbassi started shouting and asking to gather the FIS members to take to the street.
When Abbassi knew that no one came to save him, he realized that the situation was not in his favor. An officer arrested him and authorities ordered to arrest a number of the FIS founders.