ALGERIA: Algerians have voted in a referendum for an amnesty designed to end 13 years of bitter civil war.
Although the turnout appeared small, the referendum is almost certain to pass after an intense government campaign and because many are desperate to see a return to peace.
Voters were asked yesterday whether they agreed with the government's charter for "peace and national reconciliation" under which Islamist guerrillas will be given an amnesty, as long as they were not involved in massacres, rapes or large bomb attacks.
The families of the "disappeared" - the 10,000 or so people who were detained in secret and probably killed by the security services - will be compensated.
However, some Algerians are unhappy that the charter absolves the state of any crimes and does nothing to establish the truth about the killings and disappearances of the more than 150,000 victims of the war.
In addition, the Islamic Salvation Front, which was on the verge of winning an election in 1992 when the government cancelled the vote and triggered the war, will remain barred from politics.
In the village of Rais, south of Algiers, a slow trickle of people came to a local school to cast their ballots yesterday. In August 1997, the village was the scene of one of the most brutal massacres of the war, when up to 400 people were killed in an attack blamed on the Armed Islamic Group. At Rais School No 1, only about 10 per cent of the 4,362 registered voters had arrived by midday.
Most of the voters cast ballots in favour of the charter, but a handful did not. "How can you forgive people who killed our citizens, our children?" asked a woman at a polling station in central Algiers.