Snart kommer 20. april…

For ti år siden skjot regimet i Algerie mot kabylske ubevæpnede demonstranter.

Snart kommer 20. april og store demonstrasjoner er ventet. La oss se om historien kan bringe nytt lys over dagens situasjon.

Evian Agreements, which were negotiated 7-18 March 1962, which brought an end to the war in Algeria (1954-1962). French Algeria shattered as the “indigenous” majority was denied the same citizenship as that of the settlers’ minority. Revolts always punctuate denial and injustice. And those who use and abuse their power to have everything often end up losing everything.

Krim Belkacem, the head of the Algerian delegation at the signature of the independence of Algeria, was assassinated in Frankfurt on 18 October 1970 by the very regime he ferociously opposed since 1963. One street was named in his honour only 30 years later.

Since the independence of Algeria, Kabylia, which was the spearhead of the Algerian war, has been oppressed and repressed. It is, to date, ordered to renounce its own existence or suffer the wrath of the Algerian regime. The revolt has repeatedly sanctioned the denial and the injustice it suffered. Unlike the French, who have brilliantly fulfilled their word to FLN according to Evian Agreements, Algeria has never seen fit to assume its duty toward Kabylia, even after the 2004 agreement that was negotiated with the Black Spring Kabyle Ârchs (federations).

The path of the natives of yesterday to independent Algeria has many similarities with that of today’s Kabyles to their autonomy. Not being recognized in all their rights as people, after having exhausted all appeals, they may, too, to go for the irreparable.

Thus, just as French Algeria was contested by GPRA (Provisional Government of the Algerian Revolution), here is the racist and anti-kabyle Algeria, culminating in the birth of Anavad , the Provisional Government of Kabylia, in exile. Ten years ago, the criminal regime in Algiers shot at our demonstrators. The memory is shouting at us of those who fell in 2001-2003, mostly grandchildren of those who made the supreme sacrifice for the independence of Algeria.

We have a duty to ensure that their blood is not shed in vain. To this effect, the huge demonstrations that will take place in the three main Kabyle cities on 20 April 2011 are imperious. The only way to translate the slogan of 2001-2003 “Ulac Smah ulac!” (“no forgiving”), is to claim an “autonomous Kabylia!” to be confirmed by referendum.

Paris, 17 March 2011

Ferhat Mehenni, Président of Anavad

www.anavad.org; anavad@anavad.org

Translation by Massinissa Mézache.