Butaflika: A pardon to insurgents to help the nation reconcile

The Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika announced that the organization of a referendum on the "draft document for peace and national reconciliation" will be on September 29th.

The draft law which Butaflika announced in a speech he delivered on Sunday before officials, including members in the armed Islamic groups. The draft law includes taking "tangible arrangements to halt bloodshed and establish peace" in Algeria, he said.

He added that the pardon, in the form of a draft law, will put an end to judicial action against all those who stopped their armed activities and surrendered themselves to the authorities since January 13, 2000, the date when the national reconciliation law expired, under the condition that they had not committed collective massacres or acts of rape or attacks by explosives in public places.

He explained that sides entitled to this pardon "are of many number." Butaflika announced in 1999 a law for "national reconciliation" states a complete or partial pardoning for armed members who did not commit crimes of killing, rape or placing explosives in public places. This law entitled pardon to hundreds of thousands of armed Islamists who aimed to topple the government.