The reactionary coup in Algeria which ousted President Ben Bella from power shocked people all over the world. It is no longer a mystery who is behind it. Without question those who benefit from it. The powers who feared the Afro-Asian Conference....»those who detested the world Youth Festival which was to have been held in Algiers...those who feared to hear the verdict about the dirty war against Vietnam....those who feared to stand condemned for plotting against the Arab Liberetion movement by arming Israel: Washington, Bonn, the oil comoanies - they all fear the united vo voice of the emrrgent Afro-Asian powers.
Ben Bella had just returned from successful negotiations about better terms for his country with French oil companies and Presidrnt de Gaulle. Two years ago at a similar juncture in the negotiations the Algerian Foreign Minister, M. Khemesti, was shot dead by an unknown assassin and he was immediately replaced by Colonel Boumedienne's protege Bouteflika, who is now in power..it smells of oil. The Anglo-American oil companies are deep in Algeria; and West Germany even more. Bonn sent 36,000 soldiers to fight for the French against Algeria, some of them were the best torture teams. Bonn also supplied arms. In exchange, and within the Common Market, West Germany has free access to Algeria's raw materials. Krupp, Deutsche Erdoel AG, Haniel Steel and others are busy in exploiting North Africa, They are in Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauretania, Gabon and the Congose eeeve
Contrary to her neighbours, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya, Algeria took an uncompromising stand against West German militarism and neo-colonialisnm. Ben Bella gave, therefore, his support to the foreign policy of President Nasser versus Bonn. We know that Bonn is the heir of Nazi Germany and her close military alliance with Israel - under the cover of "reparations" is a menace to peace in the Middle East. Behind the present junta lurks Bonn and Washington. One of the first acts of the new Government was to order the demolition of a war-memorial which commemorates the Algerian and French soldiers who gave their lives in the war against Nazi Germany (Monde 25/6/65) Bonn wanted to buy Ben Bella with a loan of 115million francs which he refused (Monde 27/6/65) Algeria's junta wants to isolate her - under the smokescreen of Islam = from her progressive allies in Africa and Europe, in particular, from the socialist camp, the United Arab Republic and Ghana,
Ben Bella is a great Algerian patriot, but at the same time a good socialist and internationalist, because he knows that Algeria's security is linked to the liberation from imperialism of other nations. This is the reason why Ben Bella gave a home to the Angolan freedom fighters, to the Ethiopian People's Movement and to Republican Spain. The imperialists did not like him for that. And the present junta: Messrs Boumedienne and Bouteflika who smear Ben Bella "a traitor" are doing the dirty work for the imperialis tSececnes
President Ben Bella, above everything, took a leading part in the struggle for African unity and freedom. During the historic conference in Addis Abeba he advocated the militant struggle against colonialism, imperialism and racial barbarism, in particular against South Africa,.... * N.B. this is a statement issued by the Friends of Algeria Committee, c/o Iraqui Students Society, 3, Shavers Place, London S.W. 1. For space reasons we have had to considerably shorten it and delete material not relevant to the main line of argument, e.g., the question of Israel.
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