1936 -
Algerian prime minister, 1984 - 1988.
After serving as an Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN) officer during the Algerian War of Independence, Abdelhamid Brahimi became director of the Organisme de Coopération Industrielle, an institution established by the hydrocarbons Algiers Accords of 1965 to stimulate French-Algerian economic cooperation. He also represented the national hydrocarbon enterprise, SONATRACH, in the United States. President Chadli Bendjedid appointed Brahimi minister of planning and organization of the national territory in 1979. Brahimi then served as prime minister beginning in 1984 until he was replaced by Kasdi Merbah after the October 1988 riots. Brahimi favored conciliation between the ruling Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the Islamist Front Islamique du Salut (FIS). He was held responsible for the plummeting decline of the economy, and he became increasingly alienated. He charged that the cost of the corruption within the FLN amounted to $26 billion - coincidentally, the size of the foreign debt. This damaged the party's already tarnished image and consequently its performance during elections. Brahimi left the FLN and remains very critical of the Pouvoir - the military-civilian power establishment - and he believes that the military was responsible for the assassination of President Mohamed Boudiaf in June 1992. He remains an outspoken critic of the Algerian political establishment. Brahimi is the author of Stratégies de développement pour l'Algerie: 1962 - 1991 (1992; Development strategies for Algeria) and Justice sociale et développement en économie islamique (1993; Transsocial justice and development in an Islamic economy).
Bibliography
Naylor, Phillip C. Historical Dictionary of Algeria, 3d edition. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. 2005.
— PHILLIP C. NAYLOR
