Most civilians are scared, too. Despite a crackdown by Algeria’s military-dominated government, the rebels continue to fight. They are part of a vicious cycle of violence that has killed 60,000 people since it began in 1992, when the army blocked an Islamic victory in Algeria’s first national election. New elections held in June apparently settled nothing; pro-government parties won a large majority, but the banned FIS could not participate. And although most of its leaders are in prison, the FIS still has muscle in the form of its military wing, the Islamic Salvation Army. In much of the farmland and rugged hills along the Mediterranean, government forces rule only during the day. At night it’s FIS country.
In order to visit the rebel forces, I had to go underground. Foreign journalists are forbidden to leave their hotels in Algiers without an armed escort for protection against attack - and to keep them from moving freely. But a few days after the election, I slipped away from my minders and headed for a coastal town where, by prearrangement with FIS exiles, I made contact with the rebels.
Benaicha’s insurgents in the orange grove included boys as young as 15. None of the mujahedin wore beards, the usual sign of Muslim piety. Their cleanshaven chins allowed them to wander into town without being immediately pegged as Islamists. Two of the boys described themselves as assassins. Armed with sawed-off shotguns, they stalk security men in public places, firing at point-blank range and disappearing into the crowd. One boy told me he’d killed seven men in the week of the elections. Was it true? I don’t know, but his religion tells him not to lie.
For all their confidence, the rebels are not well equipped. Most have only shotguns. They make grenades from soda cans filled with gunpowder and wrapped in tape. But as they rested in the orchard, eating dates, reading the Koran and listening to taped sermons, the mujahedin appeared remarkably relaxed. When they patrolled the orchard, the farmers who work it greeted them with embraces. Benaicha and his fighters say that they kill only military personnel and ““collaborators.’’ They insist that the FIS is not behind the village massacres or the random bombings in Algiers - mysterious atrocities that are difficult to ascribe to any one group.
The Algerian war is not one of territory or front lines; many parts of the country are free of violence. Rather, it’s a mosaic of competing forces. The orchard gang is a case in point. A large highway bisects their terrain. To cross, they merely hide their guns under loose shirts and dart through the traffic. A small, poorly armed force could not survive here without strong support from the population.
When I asked Benaicha what he wanted, he replied simply: ““An Islamic state.’’ Would he negotiate with the government? Yes, but only after it legalizes the FIS and releases its leaders. He claimed he could work within a democratic system, much like the Islamist prime minister of Turkey, Necmettin Erbakan. (A week after we spoke, Erbakan was forced out of office by Turkey’s armed forces.) Political support for the FIS appears to have dwindled since 1992, but Benaicha remains confident. ““Muhammad took 13 years to establish his Islamic state,’’ he said. ““We’re only in year five.''
I knew there would be an uproar when I got back to Algiers. The U.S. Embassy had secured assurances from the Foreign Ministry that I would not be arrested. But less than an hour after I returned to the hotel, five security men burst into my room and dragged me away for questioning. When I told them about the Foreign Ministry assurances, one replied: ““We’re not the Foreign Ministry.’’ They knew I had met Benaicha. I don’t know how they’d learned that.
I was driven away in a windowless van and spent part of the night in some sort of prison; my captors did not disclose the location. At first I feared for my life, but my U.S. passport protected me. Eventually the security men took me to the airport and expelled me from the country unharmed. Algerians are not so lucky; their nightmare shows no signs of letting up. Benaicha and his mujahedin are dug in for the long haul, and so is the government. The question is, can anybody win?
