Background
BITAT, Rabah was born on December 19, 1925 in Constantine Region.
The airport of Annaba takes its name.
BITAT, Rabah was born on December 19, 1925 in Constantine Region.
The airport of Annaba takes its name.
Once the No. 2 to Ben Bella in the first independence government, he resigned and stayed away from top-level politics until the Boumedienne take over in June 1965. Although a member of the cabinet since then, he is no longer a front-rank man. He is not a member of the Revolutionary Council and his former influence still respected among the old guard has diminished.
A natural firebrand seeking better prospects for others, he was active in the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD) and became a founder member of the Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action (CRUA) in March 1954 as one of the nine great men. At the start of the revolutionary military action on November 1, 1954, he commanded the guerrillas in Algiers, where he was seized by the French in 1955 and held in prison with periods of torture alongside Ben Bella until the ceasefire in1962.
When Ben Bella’s first cabinet was formed on September 28, 1962, he was appointed Deputy Premier. At the first big reshuffle on September 18, 1963, after Ben Bella became President, Boumedienne was made First Deputy Premier and Bitat was dropped to Third Deputy Premier. Bitat claimed he was not consulted as a politbureau member and he resigned a few hours after the cabinet was announced.
In June 1964 he left Algeria for France where he surfaced on October 6, 1964, and publicly aligned himself with the Algerian opposition’s demands for “a minimum programm of political democracy". Yet he went back to Algeria in December 1964 and publicly proclaimed full support for the government.
Although he played no part in the coup of June 1965 Boumedienne paid tribute to his fine record as a revolutionary by putting his name at the top of the list of ministers in the cabinet, nominally No. 2 as Minister of State, on July 10, 1965, and subsequently gave him responsibility for transport. This portfolio was confirmed after the big cabinet reshuffle in July 1970. He is not very deeply involved in any of the big economic projects being currently undertaken but he is always at hand when the President has important talks with visiting leaders such as President Allende of Chile in December 1972.
Political Bureau, in charge of Party Organization 1962-1963.
He was from a poor peasant family unable to provide him with much formal education.