In the politics of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, ''Les éradicateurs'' ("The Eradicators") are a faction within the

n political and military establishment during that country's

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, which from 1992 pitted Islamist rebels against a military-installed government.

Description

''Les éradicateurs'' saw no room for compromise with Islamist politicians, and believed that militant organizations would be eliminated through force, refusing talks with their representatives as

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

s. Leaders included General Mohamed Lamari and Prime Minister

Redha Malek Redha Malek () (21 December 1931 – 29 July 2017) was an Algerian politician who served as Prime Minister of Algeria from 21 August 1993 to 11 April 1994. During his short term of office, which came in the early years of the Algerian Civil War, h ...

; they received support from various groups, most notably the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), but also smaller leftist and feminist groups such as the "ultra-secularist" Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD). They were popularly contrasted with '' les dialoguistes'' ("The Dialoguers"), who held that

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

and national reconciliation was the only way forward. The latter faction eventually gained the upper hand, and the presidency of

Abdelaziz Bouteflika Abdelaziz Bouteflika (; ; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019. Before his stint as an Algerian politician, Bouteflika s ...

(1999-2019) was marked by amnesties and attempt to draw Islamists back into constitutional politics. The 1995 Sant'Egidio Platform, which united most of the Algerian opposition parties, was in large part directed against the ''éradicateur'' tendency.

References

Politics of Algeria {{Algeria-stub