Lakhdar Bouregaa responds to Ben Cherif’s claims

Algerian commander and war veteran Lakhdar Bouregaa called on Colonel Ahmed Ben Cherif to hold a public historic debate to deny allegations about him.

• “Political jobless”
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• In his comments on Ben Cherif’s remarks, Bouregaa said the colonel suffers from “political unemployment” and a chronic disease which “affects psychically weak people.”
• “I am talking about the colonel (Ben Cherif) who mistakenly joined the Algerian revolution and was appointed in the fourth province to cause confusion,” he told Echorouk.
• “I suggest to Colonel Ahmed Ben cherif to face me in a news conference if he wants to talk about the revolution,” he added.
• Asked why Colonel Ben Cherif critised him, Bouregaa said the man is suffering from “isolation and inhibition.”
• “Ben Cherif was looking for a way in the media to draw attention. Actually, he found some but he did not gain anything. Because of that, he tried this time to criticise me to reach his goal.”
• “I do not want to make a big deal over him because I have never criticised bodies as Ben Cherif did in August 1962. He killed captains Ali Khalfouni and Youcef as they were wounded in the battlefield in summer 1962.”
• “Ben Cherif killed two young officers in a cold-blooded operation”
• Bouregaa said Ben Cherif knew the two officers because he had already worked with the martyr Ali Khalfouni.” The reason is that Captain Youcef caught Ben Cherif red-handed along with people in conspiracy to seize power.”
• “The captain held him in a village in Blida province (70 km west of Algiers) before he had called me to see what to do,” said Bouregaa.
• “I immediately went there. I found Ben Cherif in a bad state and I ordered the officer to release him. I asked for a brigade of soldiers and I gave him back his weapon. I asked the officer to apologise to him.”
• Bouregaa said the officer told him Ben Cherif may have killed him one day.
• “Thanks God, he did not kill me,” he added.
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• Kindness and maliciousness
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• Bouregaa said Ben Cherif is ungrateful. “When authorities arrested me in 1967, Ben Cherif kicked out my family and took my house.”
• “At that time, he was at the head of the National Gendarmerie. I could not take back my house until I get out from prison in 1975,” he added.
• Bouregaa said he tried to call Ben Cherif on Sunday to make things clear about his remarks but “he avoided talking to me.”
• The two men met in Ben Cherif’s house, two months ago.
• “He was happy to see me in his house,” said Bouregaa.
• He added that he had many facts about Ben Cherif but he prefers to disclose them later.