One of Algeria's most influential former Islamist militants endorsed on Tuesday a partial amnesty for rebels that the government hopes will end more than a decade of civil strife. But Madani Mezrag, former leader of the now-dissolved AIS movement, said a minority of rebels would continue their armed fight for a purist Islamic state.
"I am with the president. I will campaign for this project," Mezrag told a news conference in Algiers.
A national referendum on the amnesty will be held on September 29 but the plan has troubled human and civic rights groups, who have branded it a "charter of impunity" that would deprive some victims' families of justice.
Thirteen years of violence that threatened the survival of the state and cost 150,000-200,000 lives broke out when the army cancelled elections a radical Islamic party - the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) - was poised to win in 1992.
Mezrag negotiated the surrender of his AIS, the armed wing of the FIS party, in the late 1990s. The AIS, with several thousand members, was responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks.
The public backing of the amnesty by Islamist heavyweights is expected to help convince reluctant militants to lay down their arms and surrender in exchange for a pardon.
Bouteflika says his so-called national reconciliation project will enable Algerians to put a bloody past behind them.
Although rebel attacks continue, violence has sharply fallen in recent years and brought back much-needed foreign investment.
Mezrag forecast 80 percent of militants would surrender, including members of the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), although some in that group would continue their fight.
"I am in permanent contact with rebels. I can say that most of them will lay down arms to take advantage of Bouteflika's partial amnesty. The rest should be fought," Mezrag said.
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