A ceasefire announced by the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) - the armed wing of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) - yesterday provided the first hope in many months that violence in Algeria could diminish.
Mr Madani Mezerag, the "emir" or military commander of the AIS, explained the first truce in 5 1/2 years of civil war in a three-page statement written in French and studded with Koranic quotations, which was published by Algerian newspapers yesterday. The government mouthpiece, el Moudjahid, hailed it as "a major turning point in the security situation", a sure sign that the ceasefire was reached with government approval.
The ceasefire will take effect on October 1st. Because the AIS was largely a spent force, it may have little immediate effect on the violence in which more than 100,000 Algerians have died since early 1992. There has been almost no fighting between government troops and the AIS in eastern Algeria for many months. In the Algiers region, where most of the massacres of civilians have taken place, the AIS was several years ago superseded by the more radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
Mr Mezerag said he was calling the ceasefire to "unmask" the perpetrators of the massacres. The non-participation of AIS guerrillas in the war may be less important than Mr Mezerag's appeal to dissident GIA groups who may have tired of the slaughter: "The national emir of the Islamic Salvation Army . . . calls for all other groups committed to religious and national interests to join this appeal so that the enemy hiding behind abominable massacres can be unmasked," he said.
But there is also a danger that the ceasefire will prompt the GIA - as well as "eradicators" in the military - to step up attacks in hope of discrediting the would-be peacemakers. This risk was alluded to by el Moudjahid when it said that "those who do not want Algeria to dress its wounds and recover peace" might try to "modify or short-circuit" the truce.
The ceasefire announcement was dated September 21st, the day before up to 200 civilians were massacred in the Algiers suburb of Bentalha.
Mr Mezerag (37) was the driver and bodyguard of the FIS president, Sheikh Abassi Madani, before the sheikh was imprisoned in 1991. Earlier this year, Algerian authorities offered a bounty of £5 million for Mr Mezerag. He is believed to have negotiated the truce with Gen Smain Lamari, the second-in-command of the security forces.
Sheikh Abassi was freed on July 15th, a move which Mr Mezerag called "an appeasement measure" that encouraged him to call the ceasefire. The sheikh was placed under house arrest in late August, because he appealed to the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, to mediate in the war. The Algerian regime has resisted all attempts by outsiders to help resolve the conflict, and has vehemently rejected calls for an international commission to investigate the massacres.
The September 22nd-23rd massacre at Bentalha was yesterday condemned by the White House. The French Foreign Minister expressed his "revulsion" at the carnage. Western leaders stopped short of calling for intervention, but for the first time a politician close to the French government, the Socialist leader, Mr Francois Hollande, called for the "internationalisation" of the Algerian crisis. "It is no longer enough to declare our indignation," Mr Hollande said. "Appeals to the UN . . . must be heard".
Only the UN Secretary General and Pope John Paul II have dared to call for dialogue in Algeria; both men were accused by authorities of meddling in Algeria's internal affairs.