Investigation into a founding parricide of the Algerian regime – Liberation
In the beginning was blood. In 1962, Algeria tears off its independence in pain. That of the heroic national liberation fight against the French colonizer, of course. But also that, internal to the independence movement. A war as secret as it is cruel, relentless, between the different currents – and individuals – who compete to take control of the young Algerian state.
In A state crime, Journalist Farid Alilat traces one of the most striking episodes: the assassination of Krim Belkacem, October 20, 1970 in Frankfurt. This historic leader of the FLN, belonging to the famous « group of six » founders of the movement, is the man who signed Evian agreements. From 1963, he became an opponent of the regimes of Ben Bella, then of Houari Boumediene, who seized power by force. « Krim did not go up to the maquis in 1947, did not launch the 1954 insurrection, did not do seven and a half years of war, so that Ben Bella diverts the fight of a people to establish a dictatorship, a personal power, a social-marxist economy, a single party, a assembly stripped of its powers », writes Farid Alilat.
In his historic investigation, the former director of Algerian daily Freedom And weekly correspondent Young Africa – Expelled from his country last year – Egrene the rosary of conspiracies, betrayals, murders (like that of Mohamed Khider, another figure of independence out of ban on January 3, 1967 in Madrid) who paved the birth of this new Algeria. In this game, the cold President Boumediene excels. He was sentenced to death In Abstentia Krim Belkacem, who had the Out of Out of Creation to create an opposition party since Paris, in April 1969. « Every Algerian must be the auxiliary of justice by performing the death sentence in any place and any time », writes the government daily El Moujahid The day after his trial.
A year and a half later, the corpse of Krim Belkacem was found in room 1414 of the Intercontinental hotel in Frankfurt. The 48 -year -old Algerian opponent was trapped, attracted to the German city by his killers. The commando has been identified, but who is the sponsor? Rigor prevents Farid Alilat from giving a final answer. Boumediene, who confessed at the end of her life « I have red hands of blood, soaked in my blood, we have all the red hands », has always denied, in private as in public, having ordered the assassination. At that time, the head of state had also initiated secret negotiations with Krim Belkacem for his return to the country.
The indices gathered by the author rather point to the responsibility of a security framework of the regime, Ahmed Draïa, boss of the national police from 1965 to 1977, who had old accounts to settle with Krim Belkacem dating years of maquis. Draïa « Knows Germany well and the leaders of the German intelligence services », Including former SS officers, recalls Farid Alilat. The same Draïa had confiscated the Algerian villa in Krim Belkacem and had got hold of part of his assets when the opponent exiled. He died in 1988 without revealing his secret.
« The political conscience of a young Algerian is almost always developing from the moment he discovers the falsification of figures, dates, names and circumstances surrounding deaths », Recalls Kamel Daoud in the preface to the book. A state crime is obviously not the first investigation book to cut the Algerian official national story, « Who prefers myth to accuracy, the lie ennobles with the truth useful for future generations », recalls the writer, but he has the immense merit of throwing, in a lively and accessible style, « A light on the hidden and the secret that in Algeria is cultivating ».
