Algeria: Rearguard Action for Terror

Peace returned to Algiers last week. Curfew was moved from 8:30 p.m. to midnight. Some 250,000 Moslems who, in terror of their lives, had stayed home from work for the past two months, now trooped back to their jobs. Buses were running and mailmen made their rounds. Garbage, which had accumulated in fetid piles for weeks, was again collected. Europeans sat at newly opened bars and cafes, sipping anisette and eying the passing Moslems. There was little fraternization, but at least the streets did not resound to S.A.O. bombs and gunfire.

Little Summits. The relaxation was achieved through nervous and protracted secret meetings between members of the Secret Army and the Moslem F.L.N. The connecting link in the little “summit” held in suburban villas and city apartments was liberal Europeans such as Marcel Baujard, mayor of Blida, and Jacques Chevallier, once mayor of Algiers.

The chief negotiators had more trouble with extremists in their own organizations than with each other. Chief spokesman for the S.A.O. was blond Jean-Jacques Susini, 28, former student leader and a longtime fascist ideologue. In one argument with another S.A.O. leader, ex-Colonel Yves Godard, who insisted on a die-hard policy. Susini pulled out a pistol and threatened to kill him, and then ordered Godard out of Algeria.

On the F.L.N. side, the spokesman was Dr. Chawki Mostefai, 42, the general delegate of the F.L.N. to the Algerian Provisional Executive, which will superintend the July 1 referendum on the country’s independence. Dr. Mostefai also found himself continually sandbagged by more relentless Moslem colleagues. When the accord was published, promising 1) amnesty for S.A.O. killers, and 2) enlistment of Europeans in the Force Locale, the new Algerian police, there was vigorous dissent from F.L.N. headquarters in Tunis. Vice Premier Mohammed ben Bella was against any deal with the S.A.O. Premier Benyoussef Benkhedda&3151;engaged in a private power struggle with Ben Bella—railed against the amnesty provision.

Reason Reasserted. Announced Susini over the air: “The Secret Army has ceased fighting.” But diehards in the provincial cities refused to accept the inevitable, even though, in a letter from his prison cell, the captured leader of the S.A.O., ex-General Raoul Salan, backed the truce. The fanatical S.A.O. leadership in Oran swore to continue the struggle. S.A.O. mortar shells landed on oil tanks near Oran. In Bone, the city hall was put to the torch by S.A.O. fanatics. The exodus of Europeans continued at the rate of 10,000 a day.

The fact remained that with last week’s Algiers truce, reason was at last reasserting itself, and terror was fighting a rearguard action.