Kasdi Merbah

Kasdi Merbah
قاصدي مرباح
4th Prime Minister of Algeria Head of Government of Algeria
In office 5 November 1988 – 9 September 1989
President	Chadli Bendjedid
Preceded by	Abdelhamid Brahimi (as Prime Minister)
Succeeded by	Mouloud Hamrouche
Personal details
Born	Abdallah Khalef (1938-04-16)April 16, 1938 Beni Yenni, Algeria
Died	21 August 1993(1993-08-21) (aged 55) Bordj El Bahri, Algiers
Cause of death	Assassinated
Resting place	Algiers
Political party	National Liberation Front (Algeria)
Military service
Battles/wars	Algerian War, Algerian Civil War

Kasdi Merbah (Arabic: قاصدي مرباح, 16 April 1938 – 21 August 1993), whose real name is Abdallah Khalef, was an Algerian politician who served as Head of Government between 5 November 1988 and 9 September 1989 when he was a member of the National Liberation Front. He was assassinated on August 21, 1993.

Biography

Kasdi Merbah was born on the 16th of April 1938 in the province of Beni Yenni.[1][2][3] During the 1970s and early 1980s, he was the head of the Sécurité Militaire, the Algerian state intelligence service. Before the 1988 October Riots he had served as Minister of Agriculture and then Minister of Public Health, and the following month he was appointed prime minister. However, during his tenure he had an increasingly fractious relationship with President Chadli Bendjedid, and was removed from office in September 1989.[4]

Public criticism of Bendjedid led to him becoming isolated within the FLN, and in October 1990 he left the party to form the Algerian Movement for Justice and Development, known by its acronym "MAJD", meaning "glory" in Arabic.[4] However, the party failed to win a seat in the 1991 parliamentary elections, the results of which were annulled after a military coup. Merbah appeared to be a very moderate politician and tried (secretly and overtly) to help in finding a solution for the Algerian Civil War that followed the coup. A great number of analysts attribute his assassination to his past in the security services and the many state secrets he possessed, beside the apparent moderate posture he had adopted with regard to dealing with the Islamist movements, particularly the FIS who went for the armed option.

On August 21, 1993, Kasdi was assassinated in Bordj El Bahri along with his younger son Hakim, his brother Abdelaziz, his driver Hachemi Ait Mekidèche, as well as his bodyguard Abdelaziz Nasri.[5] They were attacked with automatic pistol fire by a band of five men while driving in Alger-Plage, a coastal resort 12 miles east of the capital, police said.[6] The murder was condemned by agents of the FIS in Europe who claimed it was carried out by the Algerian intelligence service, while the responsibility was claimed by the GIA.[7]

References

1. Benjamin Stora. Histoire de l'Algérie contemporaine: 1830-1988. Casbah Editions, 2004. p. 325. ISBN 978-9961-64-461-4.
2. "Tuerie à Alger-Plage". L'Humanité (in French). 23 Aug 1993. Retrieved 23 Aug 2022.
3. "ALGERIE Kasdi Merbah, ancien premier ministre Un homme de l'ombre passé à l'opposition". Le Monde.fr (in French). 24 Aug 1993. Retrieved 23 Aug 2022.
4. Frank Tachau (1994) Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa, Greenwood Press, p. 45.
5. "August 21, 1993: 28th anniversary of the assassination of Kasdi Merbah". California18. 2021-08-21. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
6. Archives, L. A. Times (1993-08-23). "Ex-Algerian Premier Killed in Ambush". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
7. Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad : the trail of political Islam. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00877-4. OCLC 48851110.