Algeria Today. History

The North African nation of Algeria is the second largest country on the continent — only Sudan is larger. Algiers, the nation's capital and largest city, lies on the Mediterranean coast. South of the narrow coastal region, on the other side of the Atlas Mountains, lies the vast desert land of the Sahara.

Algeria belonged to France for about 130 years. After a bloody eight-year revolution, Algeria became a democratic republic. Algerians 19 years old or older could vote in national and local elections.

Until 1991 , the voters elected a president who was in charge of national defense and served as commander in chief of the armed forces. The president appointed a prime minister to run the daily affairs of the government. The prime minister, in turn, appointed a cabinet called the Council of Ministers to supervise various government departments.

The people also elected a national legislature called the Popular National Assembly. After the main opposition party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), won 1991 elections, the government dissolved the National Assembly. It was replaced by the High State Committee, which has five members, most of them from the military. The committee is advised by a 60-member Consultative Council. The courts banned FIS. In June 1 992, Muhammad Boudiaf, the head of the High State Committee, was assassinated.

When the country first gained independence, Algerians formed a socialist government. In 1965, Houari Boumedienne initiated a program of rapid economic development, chiefly financed with income from the government-owned petroleum and natural gas industries.

An Algerian Constitution, adopted in 1976, proclaimed the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), or National Liberation Front, as the country's only political party. The FLN was committed to socialism. But the Constitution was revised in 1 989 to allow other parties to run candidates.

Chadii Bendjedid served as Algeria's president from 1979 until 1992. He resigned after the military seized power to prevent a parliamentary election victory by FIS. Since the takeover, civil strife and terrorism have claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Algeria is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea; on the west by Morocco; on the south by Mauritania, Mali, and Niger; and on the east by Libya and Tunisia. The country's narrow Mediterranean region has a warm climate, rich farmland, and most of the population. South of the Saharan Atlas Mountains, the great Sahara covers more than 80 per cent of Algeria

Since winning independence from France in 1962, large numbers of poor rural Algerians have moved to the cities looking for factory work, but many have been unable to find jobs. This enormous increase in population, along with the shortage of jobs and housing, has led to the development of large slums in many cities.

Many Algerians have also called for a stricter observance of Islamic teachings, Islam, the religion of almost all Algerians, governs much of daily life. Under the nation's Constitution, Islam is the country's official religion, and it is strongly supported by the Algerian government. For example, the government pays for the maintenance of mosques and the training of mosque officials.

Although Algeria has spent a great deal of money in its efforts to improve and expand its educational system, only about 45 per cent of all Algerians aged 15 or older can read and write. More than 90 per cent of the nation's children attend elementary school. The University of Algiers, with about 17,000 students, is the country's largest university.