Madani Mezrag: “Ouyahia nearly reaches reconciliation”
FIS dissolved party affiliated disagree in the evaluation of the speech that was made by Director of Cabinet at the presidency in charge of consultations to discuss a draft amendment of Constitution with Ahmed Ouyahia, at the time the second man in the dissolved FIS party, Ali Benhadja and former leader Hachemi Sahnouni criticized it and the National leader of the Islamic Salvation Army Madani Mezrag welcomed it.
Hachemi Sahnouni expressed shock following the statements of Ouyahia against the return of the FIS party, emphasizing that they “do not serve neither the power nor the people because it contains inhibition of spells”, otherwise “how do the system talks about political freedoms, and then prevents some categories of their rights”, directing his speech to authority that if they want to pass the constitution just to serve them, as consultations were only a decor, “They only deceive themselves and will not deceive the people”.
“What Ouyahia said does not reflect even the minimum expectations that he conveyed to the authority considering him a national figure” and classified the exclusion of the FIS, as an attempt by the parties in power “to please the West, France and America that do not want the emergence of the Islamic movement in Algeria.”
For his part, FIS second man, Ali BelHadj, criticized Ouyahia’s statements, saying that “Islamic Salvation Front party is certified popularly”, but he regrets due to the lack of an answer to a question if they intended not to return FIS, with the name or the characters”; and that suffices due to the failure of journalists to asked him, regarding this issue, during the seminar, stressing; “If they intended only the name, the matter is going to have a discussion, but if the matter comes to the prevention of the FIS leaders and officials from performing a political work, then for Belhadj it is opposing the law that requires participation in political action and the Constitution which provides for the guarantee of public freedoms and international conventions.
Former leader of the National Islamic Salvation Army, Madani Mezrag, told Echorouk that statements of Ahmed Ouyahia are welcome, stressing that he “spoke boldly for the first time and acknowledges the role of AIS in the restoration of peace and security”, playing down Ouyahia’s talk about the return of the FIS party, so that everyone agreed not to return with “an old image” , especially after the confirmation of the 1995 Constitution to prevent the establishment of political parties based on religion and regionalism.