Volume 50, Number 11 · July 3, 2003
Algeria's Failed Revolution
By Adam Shatz
BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS REVIEW
La Sale Guerre
by Habib Souaïdia
Paris: La Découverte, 204 pp., 14.48e
The Battlefield: Algeria, 1988–2002, Studies in a Broken Polity
by Hugh Roberts
Verso, 402 pp., $25.00
Double Blanc
by Yasmina Khadra
Paris: Gallimard, 201 pp., 4.60e
Time for Reckoning: Enforced Disappearances in Algeria
by The Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch, 98 pp.(available at www.hrw.org/reports/ 2003/Algeria0203/)
General Khaled Nezzar is often called the 'godfather' of Algeria. He is a senior member of the group of generals, active and retired, who control from behind the scenes the pouvoir—the military-financial 'power' that rules the country. He lives in Hydra Le Paradou, an elegant neighborhood of white stone villas and palm trees, high in the hills of Algiers, where well-to-do French colons used to live, enjoying Le Paradou's spectacular views. After Algeria achieved independence in 1962, their houses were occupied by high-ranking members of the National Liberation Front, or FLN. Le Paradou has preserved an aura of colonial splendor, whose serenity is disturbed only by omnipresent surveillance cameras and police stations.
Review, 5139 words
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