Algerian President Says Terrorism Must be Fought Equally Worldwide

5 November 2001
allAfrica.com
By Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Washington, DC — President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria says terrorism around the world must be tackled with equal determination and resolve. The Algerian leader, on a week-long visit to the United States, met Monday with President George W. Bush and other senior White House officials.

Speaking in Philadelphia, he said: "Terrorism is one and indivisible. If we are going to combat terrorism, we must do it together, uniformly with the same vigour, the same conviction and the same financial means," said Bouteflika. Algeria has made it clear that it supports the United States in its efforts to root out terrorism.

Bouteflika was a special guest, Friday, at the Corporate Council on Africa’s U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Philadelphia. He was presented with an award for his contribution, along with Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, to a new development and recovery plan for Africa.

Addressing hundreds of African and American business and political leaders in Philadelphia, Bouteflika expressed Algeria’s sorrow at the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, DC.

But he reminded the audience that his country, "which has been fighting terrorism alone for the past ten years, has already sacrificed one hundred thousand children, one million victims of terrorism and lost millions of dollars, which equals our external debt," was ironically well-placed to share in the current pain and suffering of the American people.

Bouteflika said Algerians offered the United States "compassion from a people which has been the victim of blind violence and which can understand what your are feeling."

For the past decade, the authorities in Algeria have been struggling against a violent and devastating campaign by Islamic extremists which still continues. The conflict has cost the lives of thousands of men, women and children. Bouteflika’s government has experience trying to limit the influence of an ideological Islamist war that has spread beyond Algeria’s borders, knowledge that may be useful to the Bush administration.

Using passionate oratory, the Algerian leader pointed out that everyone must now understand that terrorism was terrorism, wherever it was found in the world. "There are no good terrorists and bad terrorists," he said, indicating that some find refuge in European and other Western countries. "Others are considered bad terrorists, because they are found in Afghanistan," he concluded, to loud applause.

Observers say President Bouteflika wants Washington to know that it can count on Algerian support and solidarity in the U.S. war against terrorism. Algeria also hopes to be considered a strategic North African ally for the Americans. Bouteflika would like to see his country’s vast reserves of natural gas earning more foreign revenue.

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