APS : Friday, 08 April 2016
GENEVA (Switzerland)- President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s strategy has been successful in combatting extremists’ views, said Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel, while mentioning the Constitutional provisions amended in this respect.
In an address at the UN High-Level Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism, held in Geneva on Thursday, Messahel said that at the instigation of President Bouteflika, a strategy on the fight against violent extremism and deradicalization has been implemented for more than a decade.
The strategy has made it possible to “effectively combat extremists’ views and their detrimental effects, and to significantly reduce their impact on society, and especially young people.”
Messahel stressed the trivial number of fighting terrorists abroad come are from Algeria.
In the presence of the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, Switzerland’s head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, ministers and chief of foreign delegations, Messahel said according to the Algerian revised Constitution “the people intend to keep Algeria away from the fitnah, violence and any kind of extremism, by spreading its own spiritual, civilizational values of dialogue, conciliation and fraternity in respect of the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.”
Providing more details about Algeria’s strategy to fight extremism, Messahel said it lays on “the conviction that democracy is the best bastion against violent extremism and terrorism and the best weapon to combat them.”
Democracy, he added, “shows the truth about extremist views and the dangers and threats they posed”
It also contributes to marginalizing such views and bringing them into disrepute.”
