The leader of Algeria’s Islamic insurgency said he is ready to call for an immediate halt to the bloodshed in the North African country as a preliminary step toward dialogue.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Islamic Salvation Front leader Abassi Madani said: “In respect to your appeal on Algerians for dialogue and reconciliation . . . I am ready to call for an immediate halt to bloodshed.”
The appeal comes after the bloodiest massacre yet in the nation’s 5 1/2-year-old insurgency, in which attackers killed as many as 300 residents of a village near the capital. Friday’s attack was blamed on a rival to the Islamic Salvation Front, the Armed Islamic Group.
Annan made no public response to Madani’s proposal, and the government had no immediate reaction to the Islamic leader’s proposal.
About 60,000 people have been killed since January 1992 when the authorities scrapped a general election dominated by the Islamic Salvation Front.
