Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah spoke at a military school outside Algiers as hundreds of students marched in the capital to oppose President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth....
’s decision to seek a fifth term.
In his first comments on the protests that started last month, Salah recalled the bleak period in the 1990s when fighting between Islamic gunnies and Algeria’s security forces left 200,000 dead.
"There are parties who wish to bring Algeria back to the years of violence," Salah, one of Bouteflika’s most loyal supporters, said. "A people that defeated terrorism knows how to preserve the stability and security of its nation." He did not mention the president by name during his remarks at the school. The military is widely seen as a silent kingmaker within Algeria’s opaque ruling coterie.