Late President Chadli's Brother to Ecohrouk: “Chadli Did Not Write His Resignation”

Khalifa Ben Djedid, brother of the late President Chadli Ben Djedid reveals in this exclusive interview with “Echorouk”, the exciting details about the cancellation of legislative elections that took place on December 26, 1991, and resulted in the dissolved Islamic Salvation Front’s victory with the majority. He explained the real motives behind the abandonment of Chadli for the Presidency on January,11, 1992, and the relationship of the army for his resignation. Confirming in this context, that he wanted to deliver the “truth” to the Algerians as he experienced it with his brother during the most difficult stage in the history of a president who ruled Algeria for 13 years, when some stood by him and everyone left him lonely in the face of a “crisis” since the beginning the nineties.

He was confident when he spoke about the achievements of his brother Chadli, and told Echorouk about the full story when the President threw the towel on January,11, 1992, preferring to mention some historical stations that he thought they are important during the rule of the late President, and said: “Chadli ruled Algeria for 13 years. He was a real President and not the general manager of a national company”.

“Wallah, If I Was Not Afraid for the Army I Will Throw The Towel”

Crisis intensified and pressure was difficult for Chadli and the Algerians woke up on the impact of the events of October 5, 1998, which noticed protests and riots by thousands of youth who asked for better living conditions and more freedoms, which ended with the fall of hundreds of lives. Chadli was shocked of these painful events, because he did not quite expect them, because the power believed that October, 5, will be only a strike day that was announced by workers in the industrial area of ​​Rouiba, Algiers, but the truth was the opposite.

Chadli: “Take Away My Pictures .. Give Me Freedom”

In December 1988, the National Liberation Front Party held a conference carrying a lot of exciting and unexpected things, and President Chadli surprised the participants when he asked from the organizers and ordered them: “Take away my pictures from the hall, as if it said: “From today I’m not president of Algeria.”

“Desire to resign became apparent in the opening speech of the conference, when Chadli began his speech in front of a large gathering of activists, with a Nezar Qabbani poem that was sang by the Star of the East Umm Kulthum: “Give me my freedom and let my hand …. I gave and did not retain something.”

Chadli’s desire to resign was offset by strong opposition from leaders and activists of the Liberation Front Party, then the conference ended with recommending the President to continue the path, giving him a white paper to start amendments of the Constitution, which happened actually in the Constitution of 1989, which recognized the political and media pluralism, under which the parties emerged, and private newspapers, while radio and television remained the preserve of the state at the time.

Chadli Asked The Military Leaders After FIS Victory to Take Full Responsibility 

First legislative elections took place in the context of pluralism that was scheduled in June or July 1991, but at the request of the Prime Minister, Mouloud Hamrouche, they were postponed to December of the same year, but this postponement was rejected by the FIS leaders, and they started massive protests in Algiers that were accompanied by an open-ended strike, then the security forces intervened to disperse the demonstrators. Concurrently, Hamrouche presented his government’s resignation after the failure of the dialogue with the FIS leaders, including Abassi Madani and Ali Benhadj, on stopping the protests, which led the army to intervene and arrest these leaders.

“After the resignation of Hamrouche government, Chadli tasked Sid Ahmed Ghozali with forming a new government and start the dialogue with all parties to create the atmosphere for organizing the legislative elections on December 26, 1991, and things already went normal until the announcement of the results. Chadli was largely shocked when the FIS won the majority of seats in parliament, with 188 seats in the first round, and what increased the President’s concerns, is that the FIS leaders who had vowed authority that if they win a majority in the legislations, there would be no elections in the country.”

“Faced with this situation, which Chadli considered as very serious, he met immediately after the announcement of election results, with military commanders at the headquarters of the Ground Forces Command in Ain Naadja, in the presence of the former Defence Minister, Khaled Nezzar, where he alerted the military representatives to what he saw as an imminent danger against the stability of the country, telling them: “Take the responsibility, because I’ll not take it alone”, then the army later started consultation with the government to cancel the results of legislations.

Chadli Was Shocked When He Signed The Resignation

“Armed forces knew that Chadli actually plans to resign. He called me in the middle of the day on January,7, 1992, on the fixed line, when I was in my house in Oran with my son in law, the doctor Fathi Bakhchi, and asked me to come to his home in Zeralda, then I headed straight to Saniya Airport and took an Air Algerie plane to the capital’s airport, as my brother Colonel Malik Ben Djedid, Deputy Commander of the First Military Region in Blida at the time received me … I asked him: Why did Chadli called me?, and he said: The President would resign. I spent that night in the house of my brother Malik because I reached Algiers in the middle of the night, and the next day (8 January), I went to the home of President within 10:00 am. I asked the President about the reason of calling me up, and he said: I wanted to tell you that I’ll resign..I wanted to notify you so as not to hear the news of my resignation from the TV and be shocked”.

“The late Chadli spent difficult days between December 26, 1991 until announcing his resignation on January,11, 1992. He was collapsed psychologically and he faced this difficult situation by reading the Koran, and being committed to the five prayers, and urges his family to perform regularly. He told me: I have sworn on the Koran to respect the Constitution and the laws of the Republic, and Allah knows this. I am not ready to betray the promise which I made for Allah and the Algerian people.”