(The Woman Who Told History – Issue 1687)
In the land of Africa, as an ancient country with a long history, the history of Algeria can be traced back to a very long time, but in the long historical process, Algeria's status has existed as a subsidiary of powerful countries such as the Roman Empire for a long period of history. It was not until during World War II that Algeria became truly independent in 1962 in the course of a reshuffle of the world, and the first president was Ben Bela, but Ben Bella's government was soon overthrown by the then Minister of Defence, Khoiari Boumedin, who became the second president. The third president was Shadley bin Jadid (1979). Fast forward to 1991, when the Algerian Civil War broke out because of the conflict triggered by the election: the Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of the general election, but was brutally interfered with by the military. Faced with such chaos, President Shadley bin Jadid announced his resignation in 1992.
Against this backdrop, Mohammed Boudiaf came to the stage of history when Algeria established a five-member Supreme Council of State, which exercised presidential authority to stabilize the country. The chairman of the five-member commission was Mohammed Boudyaf, which means that Mohammad Boudyaf was the acting president or interim president (head of state) of the country.
In order to stabilize the domestic situation, Mohammed Boudiaf declared a state of emergency on February 9 after coming to power, and the first thing he did was to introduce a policy against the Islamic Salvation Front, which was to impose a party ban on the front. But soon after, Mohammed Boudyaf struck another blow at the Islamic Salvation Front, declaring the Front illegal in March and ordering its ban.
The directive was a fuse between the Islamic Salvation Front and the government headed by Mohammed Boudyaf.
But the incident continued to develop viciously, as the Government arrested two key figures, Abasi Médani and Ali Behadaghi, both senior leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front, who were tried by a government military tribunal. This led to an escalation of tensions between the two sides, with government police arresting more people and the Islamic Salvation Front turning underground and protesting in the face of the government's forceful tactics.
Nevertheless, Mohammed Boudyaf remained unrelenting, and in his view, the complete solution to the problem of chaos in the country must be carried out step by step. In dealing with the Islamic Salvation Front, he also recognized that the problem of the country, not only the Islamic Salvation Front, but also the more serious problem, that is, the corruption within the National Liberation Front, which holds real power over the country, especially the corruption of the high-level military, has reached a very serious point.
As a result, Mohammed Boudyaf decided to vigorously rectify, but because of the interests of more vested interests in the military, the opposition and pressure suffered were in fact no less than those brought about by the Islamic Salvation Front, and may even be more serious, because the conflict of interest is more direct.
It was against this backdrop that Mohammed Boudianf, who had only been in office for about 166 days, left the capital, Algeria, on 29 June 1992 for the industrial city of Annaba. Mohammed Boudianf is here because the city of Anaba has built a building of urban landmark significance, the Cultural Center. On the day of the inauguration, the Anaba Municipality, which supports Mohammed Boudyaf, extended an invitation to Mohammed Boudiyaf to preside over the presidency.
Muhammad Boudiaf knew that his series of policies had offended some people, but it was also supported by the majority of the masses, and it was time to keep going out, so he agreed to the request of the Anaba municipality to come as promised.
At 11 a.m., Mohammed Boudianaf was greeted by the people to the Hall of the House of Literature and Art in Anaba, where he would give a speech to a national television audience! But he didn't know that his speech here would be the last of his life!
The interesting, or dramatic, of the speech was that After Muhammad Boudyaf spoke on a variety of topics, including economics, his speech was full of charm, which was very exciting and inspiring after listening to it. There is no doubt that he will become a capable and just president who will "reinvigorate" Algeria! But some kind of inexplicable god of destiny has arrived at this time—
At some stage of his speech, Muhammad Boudianv suddenly changed the subject and began to lament life, saying:
"We must understand that life is short, why should we cling to power... Other nations have surpassed us with science and technology..."
Speaking of this, suddenly an explosion came from the left side of the podium.
At this critical juncture, except for the crowd in the hall who had been frightened by the sudden explosion and crawled to the ground, the eyes of Muhammad Boudyaf and his guards were drawn to the explosion on the left side of the podium, and their purpose was the same: they all wanted to see what was really happening.
But before Muhammad Boudiaf's guards went to the left of the podium to find out, there was a sudden explosion behind the podium curtain. Everyone, be amazed!
But when everyone was in a panic, a man in an explosion-proof police uniform suddenly burst out from behind the curtain, armed with a small submachine gun, and the nightmare began - Algeria's new president, Boudiaf, was killed: the murderer shot him to death with a submachine gun on his back. After Muhammad Boudiaf's head and back were hit by bullets into a honeycomb, he collapsed on the podium.
Audiences all over the country saw this scene on TV!
After the fall of Muhammad Boudianf, there was only One muhammad Boudyaf's brother-in-law and secretary on the podium, and he was stunned and his face was covered with tears.
But after the panic and fear, the most important person is gone - that is, the murderer of Muhammad Boudyaf with a gun!
However, he did not escape. Because, after a brief panic, Mohammed Boudiaf's guards immediately began a hunt for the killer. As a result, the two sides began a gunfight. The killer, who was holding a gun at the time, was killed in a shootout.
Of course, the slain President, Mohammed Boudyaf, was not forgotten, who was carried on a stretcher and his personal guards removed a flag from the podium and draped it over the body of Mohammed Boudyaf.
The sudden murder of Mohammed Boudianf caused a huge shock, especially in the Arab world, which has been called the most significant political event except for the killing of Egyptian President Sadat in 1981.
On 1 July, Algeria held a state funeral for Mohammed Boudianf.
On the second day, 2 July, Algeria set up a commission of inquiry, composed of six members, to investigate the case thoroughly. After some in-depth investigation, the behind-the-scenes organization surfaced. One of the accomplices of the gunmen at the scene, Marat, a second lieutenant in the Algerian Counterintelligence Service, was arrested, and one of his teachers at the "School for the Children of the Revolution" was Ali Jadi, one of the leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front.
In addition, a total of 13 accomplices were arrested (except for the one who was killed on the spot). According to the interrogation, it was found that their assassination plan was very terrible, and if after the failed shooting at the lecture venue, they had a second step, that is, food poisoning, and had already been poisoned in the lunch of interim President Mohammed Boudian. Of course, if the food poisoning fails, they have a third step in their plan, which is to go to the Khajar Steel Company in Anaba city that day to participate in the event, so they also planted bombs under the podium there in advance.
Although the accomplice of the murderer was caught, it is still unclear who the organization behind the scenes is, for the following reasons:
Generally speaking, in view of the measures taken by Mohamed Boudian and the contradictions between the two sides in response to the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front since coming to power, it is assumed that Mohammed Boudyaf's killer was the work of the Islamic Salvation Front, but the truth is not so simple, as Ahmad, the leader of the Algerian Socialist Forces Front, said:
"The Islamic Salvation Front is a ragtag group, not a political party organization, and it has many factions and constant conflicts within it, because the Islamic Salvation Front has no power to organize such a murder."
Therefore, according to the information provided by the subsequent investigation, the organization behind the murder of Mohammed Boudianaf is most likely from within, but in fact it should be the vested interests of The upper echelons of the military that Mohammed Boudiaf touched in the fight against corruption, because the riot police involved in the assassination organization, as well as the Algerian Counter-Espionage Service, etc., are not something that ordinary people can command.
In short, although the Algerian Supreme Council of State has set up a special organization to investigate the case, apart from punishing the perpetrators who have already been caught, the organization behind the scenes has basically failed. The Algerian high-level agency, on the other hand, did not have any agency come forward to express responsibility for the case.
In this way, the cause of Muhammad Boudianf's death became an unsolved mystery in Algerian history, and could only wait for posterity to seek answers in the vast historical archives.
But through this historical event, Algeria has also attracted greater attention to the security work of the president - because of the murder of Mohammed Boudiaf, the security flaws are also extremely obvious.
(Text/Woman Who Told History・ Green Fire)