Madani vows to end violence

As Islamist leader Abassi Madani vowed he would do all he could to end the violence that has shaken Algeria for five years, his own group issued a statement on July 17 boasting that it had killed more than 100 members of the security forces in the past two months.

Speaking as he headed from an Algiers mosque to his mother's home in Belcourt, central Algiers, the leader of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) said, "We are going to do all we can to end this situation."

Madani was suddenly freed from prison on July 16, halfway through a 12-year sentence imposed in 1992 for threatening state security. Algerian newspapers say he has always refused up to now to renounce or condemn violence.

But his comments were made as the Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the FIS, sent faxes to news agencies hailing those "who raised the flag of the jihad" and claiming it has killed 109 security officers.

The government, which rarely comments on such statements, did not confirm the killings.

In marked contrast to other militant groups fighting the government, the Islamic Salvation Army has denounced the killings of civilians in bomb attacks and massacres in the Algiers region. The civilian bloodshed is widely blamed on the rival Armed Islamic Group. The lack of a unified stand between Madani's political and armed wings fuels speculation that the aging Madani wields little influence on militant groups that have waged the insurgency against the military-backed government since the authorities canceled general elections the FIS was poised to win in January 1992.

Madani's release has sparked conflicting sentiment in Algeria, with some saying it represents a new government resolve to make peace with the Islamists and others denouncing the move as unwise at such a critical time in the battle to contain the insurgency, which has so far killed more than 60,000 people.