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Abdelhamid Mehri | |
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| Born | April 1926 |
| Died | January 30, 2012(2012-01-30) (aged 85) |
| Branch | National Liberation Front |
| Other work | Politician |
Abdelhamid Mehri (April 1926 – 30 January 2012) was an Algerian resistance fighter, soldier and politician.[1][2]
Born into a destitute family inConstantine, Algeria, Abdelhamid Mehri joined theAlgerian People's Party (PPA) at an early age. He studied inTunisia, and developed contacts with the nationalistNeo Destour party. In Algeria, he became a prominent member of the PPA's successor organizationMovement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD), and continued into theAlgerian National Liberation Front (FLN), aguerrilla movementfighting for independence fromFrenchcolonial rule. He was elected member of theGPRA, the FLN'sexile government, as minister forMaghreb affairs in 1958; in 1961, he became minister of social and cultural affairs. After Algeria's independence in 1962, he briefly left politics, but gradually gained influence after the 1965militarycoup d'état bycol.Houari Boumédiène. In 1979, soon after Boumédiène's death, he was made member of the FLN's central committee and slowly rose in the ranks underpresidentChadli Bendjedid. After the 1988 October riots in Algeria, he succeeded hardliner Mohamed Cherif Messaâdia as FLN secretary-general.
After the subsequent change to a multiparty system, and the 1992 military coup, he brought the FLN into the opposition, and supported theSant'Egidio platform urging national reconciliation with theIslamist current and theFIS as a solution for theAlgerian Civil War, in a clear challenge to theéradicateur military elite that influenced Algerian politics behind the scenes. Soon after, he was gradually ousted from the party's central committee, which thereafter returned to supporting the security establishment. He died, aged 85, inAlgiers.
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