Algeria: an extraordinary conference to nominate Benflis on Saturday

The national liberation front in Algeria has defied the decision taken by the authorities to reject giving it a license to convene its party conference to choose the leader of the front Ali Benflis as a candidate for the presidential elections in April of 2004. The front said it will hold an extraordinary conference on Saturday to nominate Benflis.

The spokesman for the front, Abdul Salaam Mujahid, accused the Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika of being directly behind the ban and described it as "a fabricated plan" to destroy the country's institutions and undermine the front's stability.

Earlier, Muhajid said that the authorities refused to license the party conference. He said "we got the license, but we have received another notification considering the licensing as void under the pretext that there is an (existing related) case before the judiciary."

Yesterday, the Algerian police detained the director of the Algerian night daily "Le Soir De Algiers," Fouad Bu Ghanem, and two of the employees in the paper Muhammad Buhmeidi and Hakim al-Alam and took them to the central police center in the capital Algiers.

The paper's chief editor Malika Busouf said the police waited until journalists entered their offices to arrest them. She expected that this operation is linked to articles written by the two journalists.

A statement by the paper said "an independent press is today subjected to an oppressive treatment by the side of the ( Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika) who was unable to answer the grave accusations of corruption addressed to him."

On the other hand, " The Algerian daily Liberty said yesterday that Islamists extremists are suspected to have had killed 8 soldiers in an ambush in al-Medya province, 90 Km to the south of the capital. The paper added that the gunmen attacked a military supplies procession serving checkpoints of the armed forces in the mountainous area where very often the rebels are active.