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Algerian leader in Paris for check-up Thursday 20 April 2006, 20:34 Makka Time, 17:34 GMT
The Algerian president has undergone medical checks at a top French
military hospital.
After the defence and foreign ministries had initially declined
to comment on his presence, a French diplomatic source said on Thursday that
"the Algerian president has been admitted to the Val de Grace hospital for a
medical check-up". Val de Grace in southern Paris is the hospital where Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, 69, was operated on for a haemorrhagic stomach ulcer in
December. The secrecy surrounding Bouteflika's visit bore similarities to
the handling of his admission to hospital in November, when officials at first
said he was in France for a check-up after suffering problems with his digestive
system. Nine days later the official APS news agency announced the head
of the oil-rich North African state had successfully come through stomach ulcer
surgery. Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the Algerian minister of state, who has the
title of the president's personal representative in the government, sought to
cool fresh speculation over his health. "I want to calm things and say that it is just a routine
check-up and anybody who had surgery should go through that process. I want to
say also that the president is in very good health," Belkhadem said.
Belkhadem says the
president Bouteflika's trip to Paris follows fresh strains in the
relationship between Algeria and its former colonial ruler. On Monday, a week after a visit by Philippe Douste-Blazy, the
French foreign minister, Boutelfika said in a speech that France had committed
genocide during its rule. "This wasn't only a genocide against the Algerian people but
also a genocide against Algerian identity," he said. He has made such comments before, but his decision to hit out at
France's record in Algeria so soon after Douste-Blazy's visit was widely seen as
a rebuff to Paris. Jean-Marie Le Pen, a French far-right leader, said he
was outraged that Bouteflika should accuse France of genocide and then accept
medical help.
Le Pen was outraged
by During Douste-Blazy's trip, officials of both countries said
that they were willing to sign a delayed friendship treaty but that they needed
more time to strike the deal. France is the largest supplier of Algeria's imports and the two
nations were due to sign the accord, similar to the 1963 Franco-German
reconciliation treaty, at the end of last year to end tension that followed 132
years of occupation. Legislation The disputed legal move was recently repealed by French
President Jacques Chirac, but the decision did not help defuse the crisis
between the two countries. Algeria last year called on France to apologise for crimes
committed during the colonial era. Bouteflika also urged Paris to admit its part
in the massacres of 45,000 Algerians who took to the streets to demand
independence as Europe celebrated victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. French authorities then responded by playing down the comments,
urging "mutual respect". The 1954-1962 war of independence cost the lives of 1.5 million
Algerians, according to the Algiers government. Many French also
perished. The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
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