Background
Born on August 23, 1927. His real name is Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba.
Boumédiène, Boumedienne
military politician president of state
Born on August 23, 1927. His real name is Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba.
After elementary education and Koranic instruction at Guelma he went to Kettani Medersa in Constantine for his main education with an Arabic curriculum. When he failed to get deferment from conscription into the French Army to complete his studies he escaped to Egypt to enrol at A1 Azhar Islamic University at Cairo.
His scholarship was soon abandoned for revolutionary studies on finding fellow Algerian nationalists such as Ben Bella in Cairo. In December 1954, one month after the National Liberation front (FLN) came out into the open against the French authorities, he thrust himself into the forefront of the struggle. After military training at Hilwan in Egypt he went to a guerrilla fighter course at Nador, 150 miles west of Oran in Morocco.
Early in 1955 he began leading guerrilla attacks against the French in the Oran area. Two years later he was commander of Wilaya V, one of the fLN’s six commands. In June 1958 he was appointed commander of the National Liberation Army (ALN) in the western sector covering the Algeria- Morocco border. In September 1958 he became a member of the National Council of the Algerian Revolution (CNRA) when the provisional government was established in Cairo. Promoted to colonel the highest rank there was he took command as chief- of-staff of the ALN General Staff at Ghardimaou, three miles inside Tunisia, in charge of a frontier force of 30,000 men.After independence in 1962 he was caught in the power struggle between the old guard led by Ben Khedda and the idol of the young nationalists Ben Bella, recently freed from prison. He sided with Ben Bella and on June 30,1962, the provisional government announced his dismissal from the army.
After temporary refuge in Wilaya VI in the Sahara he marshalled the army behind Ben Bella, who was returned in triumph as Prime Minister with a 90% vote on September 20, 1962. In Ben Bella's first cabinet formed on September 28, 1962, he was appointed Minister of National Defence.
His first priority was to strengthen the armed forces. He went to Moscow for Soviet military equipment and instructors. By raising soldiers' pay, giving them a voice in a twice-weekly newspaper “El Djeich" (The Army), and establishing co-operatives for the army, he created a military elite with 50,000 men. Ben Bella's cult of personality and attempt to concentrate more and more power in his own hands led to strained relations after his election as President on September 15, 1963. Boumedienne was named as First Deputy Premier in the cabinet formed on September 18, 1963 and insisted upon retaining the posts of Minister of Defence and Army Commander.
In March 1964 an attempt to undermine his position was made by Ben Bella nominating Colonel Tahar Zbiri as Chief of the Army General Staff. But Boumedienne kept control of the armed forces by a secret pact with Zbiri. Next, Ben Bella forced the resignation of
Medeghri, Minister of the Interior and strong supporter of Boumedienne. He almost succeeded in contriving the resignation of another Boumedienne ally, Bouteflika, as Foreign Minister. From then on preparations began for the new revolution.
The timing was determined by warnings from Zbiri and Bouteflika that there was a plot to oust Boumedienne as the Afro-Asian conference was about to open in Algiers. Boumedienne immediately marshalled the army behind him and with 10 handpicked officers and 1,000 men seized power in a bloodless coup at 3.30 a.m. on June 19, 1965. A communique from him denounced Ben Bella as a “diabolical dictator”. Bouteflika flew to Cairo with a message seeking the support of Egypt’s leader Nasser which he obtained once assurances were given that there would be no trials or vendettas. Boumedienne assumed the Presidency of the government and the 26-member Revolutionary Council. Zbiri disappeared in December 1967 after plotting a coup against Boumedienne, who survived an assassination attempt in April 1968 with facial wounds from flying glass.
Boumedienne’s international stature became established in the disarray after Israel’s success in the six-day war of June 1967. Many looked upon him as a successor to Nasser as leader of the Arab world. It was he who called for an Arab boycott of oil to America and Britain, who flew to Cairo to urge Arabs not to abandon the fight, and who went to Moscow to insist upon a reinforced commitment to the Arab cause.
This stature was tested when Moise Tshombe, former Congo Premier, was hijacked on June 30, 1967, on his way between Ibiza and Majorca in a British chartered plane and landed as an embarrassing hostage in Algiers. There was strong pressure for Tshombe’s extradition to the Congo, where he faced a death sentence. Algeria’s Supreme Court granted the extradition order but Boumedienne refused to sign it, saying: “I believe in keeping him away from the Congo in the interests of the Congo people.” His action enabled Tshombe to live as a well-guarded prisoner until he died on June 29, 1969.
His main concern has been to make the revolution work by improving the life of the people. Reorganisation of the economy, begun by nationalising the mines in 1966, was pushed forward by the state take-over of petrol distributors on May 15, 1968, then by government acquisition of a controlling interest in foreign oil companies on February 24, 1970. After nationalisation his next priorities under the first four-year plan to 1973 were exploitation of oil and gas reserves and large-scale industrialisation. In his second four-year plan for 1973-19777 he adjusted priorities to the aspirations of a consumer society more goods in the shops, more schools and houses, and a series of projects directed at ending unemployment by 1980.
Absorbed in Algeria’s development with nationalisation of oil, massive industrialisation projects and the aim of eliminating illiteracy and unemployment he has had little time for international problems except the Arab- Israeli conflict. He has been one of the most militant anti-Zionists, strongly opposed to negotiating Arab coexistence with Israel. Although becoming more conservative in his national attitudes, he has preserved his outward looking radical revolutionary zeal and kept his country’s doors open to help 17 liberation movements with training facilities and finance.
Spartan revolutionary, without any frills of philosophy, whose power base has always been the army, which he com¬manded in the liberation struggle with France. Lean, hollow-cheeked with piercing green eyes, he has a puritan dislike of ceremonial and showmanship. He rarely wears military uniform nowadays and abhors Press conferences or interviews. His tastes are simple. No fast cars, private jet or personal swimming pool. His only relaxation is pigeon-shooting. Always something of an enigma, he has kept his identity masked under nom Boumedienne, a name chosen from a mountain range near Oran where he operated in 1955. Well-read but not widely travelled outside North Africa.
Quotes from others about the person
His pragmatic approach to government was crystallised in a comment in February 1971: “You cannot feed people with fine speeches. What they need is bread, shoes and schools.”
He was from poor farmer's family of seven children at Clauzel, a village near Guelma.