Algeria: Resignation of 4,000 from the national guards

El-Sahafa newspaper stated yesterday that nearly 4,000 national guards members of the Algerian self-defense groups decided on giving up fighting the armed Islamic groups.

The newspaper said that those men intend through this procedure to protest on being a victim of the authorities' abandoning the struggle as they (the authorities) no longer provide them needed weapons or their salaries.

It is worthy to mention that since 1993, a year after the beginning of the wide violence acts in Algeria, the authorities established the self - defense groups providing them with weapons and assigned them to maintain security in a campaign against armed Islamic groups. The number of these self - defense groups is unknown but is estimated at tens of thousands.

The newspaper said those members are no longer enjoying the authorities' support since the application of the civil reconciliation law in July 1999.