ALGIERS - About 200 Algerian Islamist fighters have so far surrendered under an amnesty aimed at ending years of violence, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said in remarks published on Wednesday. The number represents a quarter of the total amount of guerrillas estimated by officials to have been at large when the amnesty came into effect in FebruaryThe amnesty, which runs out in August, is part of a package of reconciliation measures intended to put a definitive end to years of bloodshed during which 200,000 people died in a nation whose stability is important for the security of north Africa and the wider Mediterranean.
The government-backed El Moudjahid newspaper quoted Zerhouni as saying the number of rebels who had given themselves in recent months “must not be far off 200”.