Ben Khedda Statement

Ben Khedda Statement

Struggle over power in Algeria where Ben Youssef BEN KHEDDA, president of the GPRA (Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic) agrees to erase himself in front of the pre-eminence of the Political Bureau founded by Ahmed BEN BELLA. Televised intervention by BEN KHEDDA, head of government. - "... There is the problem of the integration of the NLA and more particularly that of the borders... (This question can only) be decided within the framework of the People’s National Army.... Some officers who lived outside did not know the revolutionary war as that of the maquis... The people were the main artisan of independence.... This dangerous conception (that which gives primacy to the army) leads to underestimating the people, even to despise them and creates the danger of seeing the birth of a feudalism or a militaristic caste such as exists in some underdeveloped countries, as in Latin America.... The revolution is not the work of a fraction of the people.... The linchpin is the militant with or without uniform, whether he is in the FLN, the ALN, the unions or any other organization... The army is in the service of the nation. It is not the source of power... This origin (of power) can only be the people... This is the basic idea of our revolution and of all democracy."

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File : 1954 -1962: Algerian War, the FLN

Publication date : 6 August 1962