Embassy Row

Algeria’s example

The Algerian ambassador yesterday called for a global, coordinated fight against terrorism that also includes promoting economic development in countries that breed Islamic extremists.

“We need a more international security system, more coordinated, more effective,” Ambassador Amine Kherbi told a briefing at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

“Now is the first time that all countries, big and small, are in a kind of disarray facing this global and transnational threat,” he added, referring to terrorist groups inspired by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

Mr. Kherbi called for international efforts to jointly target terrorists, while encouraging economic development.

“Algeria views security as inseparable from development,” he said.

Mr. Kherbi said his nation presents a textbook case in how to combat terrorism, which infested the North African nation in the 1990s after the military intervened when the extremist Islamic Salvation Front was close to winning the country’s first multiparty elections. A 10-year conflict broke out in 1992. The government crushed the main rebel movement by 2002, while other guerrillas accepted a government amnesty.

“My government brings to the table an unparalleled anti-terrorism experience,” the ambassador said, adding that Algeria “maintains a vigilant front line” against extremism.

Mr. Kherbi said terrorists quietly festered in Europe in the last decade.

“The reality was that European countries were harboring terrorists in the name of the rule of law,” he said, referring to immigrants granted political asylum there. “Before 9/11, nothing was done.”

Mr. Kherbi said Algeria is a “strong and reliable partner” of the United States and has maintained diplomatic relations for more than 200 years.

“Algeria actively cooperates with the United States in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

“Algeria is also an important trading partner of the United States, a rich country with some of the largest natural-gas reserves in the world. As a supplier of liquefied natural gas, Algeria is involved in the energy security of the United States.”

Mr. Kherbi, ambassador here since May 2005, also served as Algeria’s envoy to Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, Indonesia and Spain. Before his assignment in Washington, he was the international security adviser to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Addicted to violence

Nepal’s Maoist rebels continue to act like Mafia gangsters and will remain on Washington’s list of terrorists, even though they are part of the government of the Himalayan nation, the U.S. ambassador in Katmandu said yesterday.

“Pushpa Dahal and the rest of the Maoist leadership have an historic opportunity … to prove to the Nepali people and the world that their party really is committed to democracy and peace,” Ambassador James Moriarty said, referring to the rebels’ leader, in a speech.

“Maoist assurances that they are peace-loving democrats have been proven hollow daily by the violent actions of their cadre. If the Maoists want the people”s trust and support, they must win it through democratic competition and free elections — and not through violence.”

Mr. Moriarty noted that a year ago Maoists promised to end their uprising, which began in 1996, and received five Cabinet positions in the Nepalese government.

“It has been more than a year since their insurgency ended, yet the Maoist addiction to violence, extortion and intimidation continues unabated,” he said.

Although 31,000 rebels agreed to relocation to U.N.-monitored camps, the Maoist leadership placed many others in a new organization called the Young Communists League, Mr. Moriarty said, adding that the league has “run amok” and committed Mafialike crimes.

“Maoist violence and intimidation are derailing the peace process, and the consequences threaten the future of all Nepalis,” the ambassador said.

c Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@ washingtontimes.com.