Update Following the Assassination

     Algiers and the rest of the nation appear to be in a state of uneasy calm in the days following the assassination of Mohammed Boudiaf.  On Thursday, the first day of the Moslem weekend, the capital and surrounding areas were relatively calm, with only normal security checks apparent. Gendarmerie vehicles patrolled some city streets where most shops were shuttered.

     Some 500 meters from the Martyrs' cemetery where Boudiaf was buried, young Islamic fundamentalists shouted slogans in support of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). Security forces fired warning shots to disperse them. 

     The streets of the capital, normally crowded in the evening following a hot summer day, were nearly deserted as Algerians observed a seven-day mourning period for Boudiaf. The mourning period is part of the almost invisible security in effect.  This is an extreme contrast to the omnipresent tanks and army road blocks that were visible during the unrest six-months ago after the military takeover. 

     Gunshots were heard in central Algiers on Thursday, a day after Boudiaf's burial.  The shots were fired in the main shopping street, rue Didouche Mourad, around 5 pm, sending people fleeing in panic.  Another incident involved an apparent attack on a police patrol in which no one was injured, and an unexplained gun battle lasting about 10 minutes on the outskirts of town.

      Riot police watched while youths chanted Muslim fundamentalist slogans as tens of thousands of Algerians lined the streets to pay their last respects to their slain leader.  Because of the unruly crowd outside the mosque, the official cortege carrying Boudiaf's coffin changed its route rather than risk an escalation of tensions.  It also detoured around one strongly fundamentalist working-class neighborhood. 

     Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, and French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, were among the few prominent foreign leaders attending the funeral. 

     The U.S. Department of State is underscoring its recent travel advisory which advises U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Algeria, and to avoid all public gatherings, demonstrations, and the southern regions of Algeria, if travel is undertaken. 

     The leadership is firm in its desire to restore a state of law to the country which has been shaken by Moslem fundamentalist unrest, and the presidency, in permanent crisis session with the supreme security body, is keeping silent as it pursues an official inquiry into the killing. 

     The last International Institute for Strategic Studies report said the ability of Algeria's armed forces to hold together was crucial to avert the threat of civil war. 

     Boudiaf's killer, who had initially been reported to have been shot dead, and 11 other Islamic fundamentalists who allegedly participated in the well-planned assassination, have been captured or killed by security forces. 

     The man who emptied his sub-machine gun into the president's back has been identified as a sub-lieutenant in the army counter-espionage unit guarding Boudiaf.  The 26 year old confessed to the crime and said he had been a student of Ali Djiddi, one of the seven top FIS leaders whose trial briefly opened but was quickly suspended on Saturday.  Other fundamentalist conspirators are being sought. 

     Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar, the strongman of the four-man leadership, moved swiftly to appoint a successor to Boudiaf.  That successor is prominent war veteran Ali Kafi, 64.  Kafi is secretary-general of the National Organization of the Moujahidine (fighters), and has served as ambassador to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq and Italy. He has been on the ruling committee since its establishment in January.  Kafi has a reputation for courage, and is viewed as a moderate.