nals

Illicit drugs:
increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian
opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to
a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for
Western Europe; limited opium and growing cannabis production;
ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and expanding
in Europe; vulnerable to money laundering associated with regional
trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and illegal aliens

This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005

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@Algeria

Introduction Algeria

Background:
After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought
through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's
primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has
dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent
generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the
FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round
success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991
balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the
second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared
would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army
began a crack down on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin
attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections
featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but
did not appease the activists who progressively widened their
attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw
intense fighting between 1992-1998 and which resulted in over
100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of
villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the
late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army,
disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants
persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and
occasional attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA
in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed
neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. A number of
longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second
term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy
campaign, large-scale unempl