Algeria: The One-Day War

After weeks of bluster and sporadic bloodshed, Algeria’s Politburo Chief Ahmed ben Bella last week finally ordered his troops to seize the new nation’s rebellious capital.

Within hours, motorized columns carrying 16,000 regular troops were rolling northward along three roads toward Algiers. Then they ran into roadblocks set up by defiant troops of Wilaya 4, the military district that includes Algiers and the surrounding region. As their trucks squealed to a halt, Ben Bella’s troops embraced their foes at the barricades and sat down to drink coffee together. “Dear brother,” one of Ben Bella’s officers would say, “we have orders from the Politburo to advance on Algiers.” A wilaya commander would reply: “Dear brother, we are sorry but we have orders not to let you pass.” Then the brothers abandoned fraternity for fratricide.

On a ridge above rolling wheatfields near Boghar, 90 miles south of Algiers, TIME Correspondent James Wilde watched the war begin. Cabled Wilde: “The regular army, trained in Tunisia, rode in Skoda trucks, wore uniforms made in Red China, packed Czech submachine guns, Russian recoilless rifles and Chinese-made mortars. Against them were ranged a motley collection of lightly armed Wilaya 4 guerrillas, most of them hardly more than boys. Though the regulars were plainly holding back their superior firepower at Boghar, heavy fighting took place near mountainous Aumale, about 60 miles to the east, where determined guerrillas could have stopped Ben Bella’s forces for months if they had wished. In all, more than 100 men died and 400 were wounded before the single day’s fighting ended in an uneasy truce.”

“Real Independence.” In Algiers itself, meanwhile, militiamen loyal to the Politburo surged out of hiding and seized control of the casbah in rooftop fighting. From Oran, where lie had fled four days earlier to avoid arrest by Wilaya 4 troops, Ahmed ben Bella slipped into Algiers, dressed in woman’s clothing. There, in return for a ceasefire, Rebel Leader Colonel Hassan agreed to evacuate the city and to confine his routed, discredited forces to one of the suburbs.

Changing into a dark blue suit, Ben Bella that night delivered a “victory” speech from a balcony overlooking Algiers’ spacious Forum. But so disgusted are Algerians with their squabbling leaders that scarcely 500 turned out to hear Ben Bella proclaim: “The crisis is over. The Politburo’s authority is restored!” Unconvincingly, he added: “Algeria’s real independence dates from today.”

Garrison Joys. Though he had temporarily disposed of one opponent, Ben Bella had plenty left. The rugged Berber guerrillas of Wilaya 3 were still holding out in the impregnable mountains of Kabylia. led by hard-bitten Belkacem Krim. who negotiated the Evian agreements with France and may still have the power to oust Ben Bella. Also ranged against Ben Bella is the bulk of organized labor in Algeria, led by realistic unionists such as Ali Yahia, an ex-schoolteacher who believes that living standards can be maintained only through cooperation with France. Even more bitterly opposed to the Politburo are the 250,000 Algerian workers in France, whose organization still refuses to send funds to Ben Bella’s de facto government.

The most dangerous antagonist of all may well be thin, fiery Colonel Houari Boumedienne, commander of the regular army (see box). In borrowed French helicopters, Ben Bella had to fly twice to the front lines to get Boumedienne to agree to the ceasefire. There was an ”acrimonious” meeting at Orleansville, where Boumedienne argued bitterly against the deal made with Wilaya 4 just as he was at the point of breaking through the rebel defenses. The regular army, he declared, was being cheated of its triumphal entry into Algiers, where his officers anticipated fat political jobs and his men dreamed of the soft garrison life. Boumedienne got his way, and this week, grinning broadly, he headed for Algiers in a green Land Rover at the head of a token force of 4,000 army regulars, who will remain as a part of the city’s garrison.

By week’s end, Ben Bella had issued a sheaf of pacifying orders. From now on, he declared, Algiers would be a “demilitarized city” under the control of a police force loyal to the Politburo. The often-postponed national elections were rescheduled for Sept. 16. Ben Bella also took personal credit for having brought an end to the fighting. That seemed only fair to most Algerians: after all, Ben Bella had started it. But his troubles—and Algeria’s —were only beginning.