After OK'ing peace plan, Algeria faces unknowns

ALGIERS -- With an overwhelming ''yes" vote to a peace plan, Algeria officially turned the page on a brutal Islamic insurgency that brought horror to this North African nation and left an estimated 150,000 dead.

But the endorsement in Thursday's referendum of a long, vaguely worded charter for peace holds a new set of unknowns. Will the violence end? Will justice prevail after a sweeping amnesty for Islamic fighters? Will this oil- and gas-rich country be able to turn its attention to tackling its soaring unemployment?

Algerians approved the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a personal initiative of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with acclaim. More than 97 percent of voters said ''yes," Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said yesterday.

A relatively high participation rate -- nearly 80 percent of the more than 18 million eligible voters cast ballots -- drew attention, particularly the nearly 72 percent rate in the capital, where turnout for elections is traditionally low and rarely surpasses 40 percent. Zerhouni dismissed skepticism, saying at a news conference the voting and vote-counting were transparent.

The results ''reflect Algerians' desire to live in peace and to turn the page of the tragedy that our country has lived through for 15 years," Zerhouni said.

The strong approval also came with a sigh of resignation from human rights groups and some politicians who criticized the lack of public debate over the charter, which was the object of a high-profile campaign by the president.

Critics also expressed concern that Bouteflika was trying to whitewash years of agony and hindering the ability of victims to obtain justice, as well as fears that Algeria was planting the seeds of future violence by bringing extremists home.

The charter gives amnesty to a broad span of Islamic extremists, from fighters to those who provide logistical support, but laws must be promulgated to put the proposals into practice. The interior minister said the legislative process would begin as soon as possible but provided no details about what the laws will look like.

And no one knows how the state will weed out Islamists not eligible for amnesty -- those who committed massacres, rapes, or carried out bomb attacks in public places.

Another unknown is how the state will address the thousands of people who disappeared, many allegedly at the hands of security forces. Families of victims are to be given reparations but the charter does not provide a means for victims to seek justice and finally come to terms with their losses.