Algeria: flags at half mast and "minimum" mourning for Abdelaziz Bouteflika
In Algiers, the flags are at half mast on Saturday, September 18, the day after the disappearance of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the age of 84.
AP - Fateh Guidoum
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The death of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Friday, September 17, did not spark much comment, either from the authorities or from the press.
The Algerian government has not decreed national mourning or upset the daily life of citizens on Saturday, while discreetly preparing the funeral of the one who was, four times, President of the Republic.
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Abdelaziz Bouteflika
will be buried at midday on Sunday, September 19, in the Martyrs' Square of the El-Alia cemetery, east of Algiers, with the heroes of independence and all his predecessors. The national flag will remain at half mast for three days, until Monday inclusive, throughout the country, by decision of President Abdelmajid Tebboune. And
his brother Saïd
could even be allowed to leave the prison, where he is officially held for acts of corruption, to join his sister Zhor and his brother Nacer during the burial.
So much for the official device.
Despite his twenty years in the presidency and
his very long political career
, the death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika is not treated as a major event in Algeria.
Saturday, it was only the subject of a brief on the site of
El-Moujahid
, the government daily, after being announced by a modest banner scrolling the day before on the antennas of public television.
According to AFP, radios and televisions "
always stuck to a brief, without devoting a special program to it
".
"
Bouteflika embodies a system that has been hated by the people
"
Saïdi Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, "
does not rejoice at the death of any person, whoever they are
". “
But for the Algerian people, Bouteflika is part of the past. For us, he had been absent since practically 2013, since his fourth term. He did not speak to the Algerian people during a whole mandate. It should still be remembered that in 2019, Bouteflika was
dismissed by the people,
”he says, recalling that the former head of state“
embodies a system that has been hated by the people
”.
“
Of course, it's an event.
But today, the Algerian people are more concerned with daily life: the situation of freedoms, the number of prisoners of opinion, the social situation, the purchasing power which is deteriorating more and more, the pandemic, the change. climate, fires ...
”, continues Saïdi Salhi.
“A majority of Algerians will above all keep the image of a very tired, weakened and very frail president.
(...) A president left by the back door "
Death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika - "A president left by the back door", according to researcher Dalia Ghanem
Esdras Ndikumana
Despite everything, messages of condolence have come from all over the world.
The King of Morocco,
Mohammed VI
, sent a message to Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune and to the family of the deceased to convey "
his deep condolences and sincere compassion
".
A message noticed while Algeria and Morocco are going through a serious
diplomatic crisis
, in particular around the sovereignty of Western Sahara.
In parallel, according to the Arabic site Sabqpress, the Bouteflika family received all day Saturday the visit of eminent personalities of the National Liberation Front (FLN).
“When he got sick he should have left.
But his rotten entourage used him.
This is what f *** Algeria in the ***.
"
At the Goutte d'Or, the Algerian diaspora speaks out after the death of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Marie Casadebaig
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Algeria
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelmadjid Tebboune