Algeria rules out ex-rebel Islamists forming party

ALGIERS, Sep 5 (Reuters) Algeria will not allow former armed Islamists who launched an insurrection in the 1990s to form a political party, the interior minister said in remarks published today.

''Any return to the political scene by officials of the dissolved party'' is ruled out, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni was quoted as saying by government newspaper El Moudjahid, referring to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

His remarks run counter to a report on Monday in the El Khabar daily which quoted Zerhouni as saying the government would study a request by former members of the FIS armed wing to form a political party.

Zerhouni had said that the government would check if the request conformed with a national reconciliation law issued under an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to rebels who disarmed, El Khabar reported.

El Khabar's report was welcomed by veterans of the FIS's former Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), which disarmed in 1997, as a step that could speed up the normalisation of the country's stagnant political scene after 15 years of political violence.

According to Algerian law, Algerians must obtain the Interior Ministry's permission to form a political party.

Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that the FIS was set to win. The authorities had feared an Islamic revolution.

Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in 15 years of brutal violence. The authorities banned the FIS and imposed a state of emergency, measures which remain in effect.

Under the national reconciliation programme, Bouteflika offered rebels who disarmed an amnesty provided they were not involved in massacres, rapes and bombings in public places.

El Moudjahid quoted Zerhouni as adding: ''The laws on national reconciliation and on political parties are very clear'' on the subject of former rebels entering politics.

He was referring to provisions that outlaw participation in politics by anyone considered to have used religion for political purposes.

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