By K. Assalas

(Washington D.C.)–Algeria’s military junta is poised to reelect its own President. The election will be upheld next September, and the winner is known before ballot because Algeria is a military dictatorship, it often designates its representative months before holding election, after a strong clan of army generals take its decision of the person who will serve its interests.

On December 12^th, 2019, Algerian army generals chose and designed M. Abdelmadjid Tebboune as their President in election riddled and marred by fraud and irregularities. 

Tebboune has been chosen by the army for several reasons: he is highly corrupted, and his son is a drug and cocaine dealer. Also, he’s known for his frailness, weakness, and cowardice. Therefore, Tebboune was put in power as a clown to serve the Algerian military hierarchy, and in case of refusing to be subdued, it will charge him and undoubtedly face a tough sentence in prison, or an eventual assassination in same way it has killed the former President–Mouhammed Boudiaf, on 29th, June 1992.

However, during this fake election, Kabylia didn’t vote and rejected anything coming from the Algerian criminal regime. There were zero votes and a total boycott because Kabylia has a different perspective. It is seeking independence from Algeria, which has been colonizing it since 1962. It is undergoing in Kabylia  ethnic-cleansing and a scorched earth policy. It is, slowly but surely, forcing Kabylians to assimilate to become Arabs, it is burning Kabylia every single summer. Coercion has become a daily routine in Kabylia, targeting human rights and Kabylia’s self-determination activists. Over 500 peaceful activists were arrested and are rotting in Algeria’s prisons, 38 condemned to death sentences. Use of torture as a systematic policy in prisons against Kabylians is a cornerstone of Algeria’s repressive system in order to humiliate and squelch Kabylia’s activists.

In addition, over 40 Christian churches were closed in Kabylia. Moreover, thousands of Kabylians who are living abroad are pushed to exile and banned from entering Kabylia–Some who challenge this injustice by willing adventure to visit their families are systematically arrested at the airport entrance and charged for undermining Algeria’s national unity. 

Now that an upcoming election is scheduled on 7^th, September 2024, M. Tebboune is likely to be reelected by the decision-makers–the Algerian army’s generals. And by its panoply of propaganda, puppets, opportunists, and repression will try avoiding the boycott scenario of 2019. Then, Teboune will be imposed as a legitimate president to Kabylians as to Algerians. 

Although Algerians will vote as usual, and Algeria state’s plans to subdue and pacify Kabylia by collaborating with its proxy and intensifying repression in Kabylia, it will not be successful in engaging Kabylians to cast ballots in so far as Kabylians have other aspirations that are radically different from Algerians. They are determined to seek self-determination through a democratic referendum under UN supervision to free Kabylia from the Algerian colonialism which started after 1962. For your information, President Ahmed Ben Bella, in his speech in 1963 after the illegitimate ousting of President Ferhat Abbas on 15 September 1963, pronounced a racist and discriminatory speech against Berbers (Amazighs) in which he stated, “We are Arabs, we are Arabs, we are Arabs.” This statement tells us a lot about the hegemonic nature of the Algerian regime against the native population. However, Kabylians, as a minority, saw the danger of this rhetoric for their culture and identity and their existence as well. Hence, they have become dissident against Algeria’s state since the departure of French colonialism in 1962. In other words, Algeria in Kabylia is acting the same as the former French colonist. Subsequently, Kabylia’s struggle for its freedom and liberation finally led, after the Dark Spring of 2001 in which Algeria assassinated 130 peaceful protesters and injured over 6000 Kabylians, to the creation Kabylia Self-determination Movement (MAK), and the Kabylia Provisional Government in exile.

Given Algeria’s grim milestone in human rights abuses in Kabylia, and the pain and suffering of the Kabylia population, currently the pivotal need of Kabylia is not at all voting in Algeria’s election, but to be a part of solution in this political plight opposing Algeria to Kabylia. Until then, Algeria must cease its genocidal plan and hostilities against Kabylia, and therefore must stop:

1.    Stop burning Kabylia’s land each single summer;

2.    Stop its hegemonic and assimilation plan against Kabylia;

3.    Make an immediate end to its military propaganda which is vilifying Kabylians;

4.    Repeal the gruesome article 87 bis of the Algerian penal code;

5.    Release all Kabylia’s innocent detainees;

6.    Immediately repeal the unfair and unjust 38 death sentences;

7.    Stop intimidation and harassment of Kabylia citizens;

8.    Respect religion freedom in Kabylia;

9.    Stop pushing Kabylians to exile;

10. Assist and indemnify the victims of fires for their loss.