Algerian president warns against attempts to destabilize military

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday warned against any attempts to destabilize the military. "No one has the right, whatever his position, to attack the People's National Army or other state institutions," Bouteflika said in a message of condolences to victims of a military plane crash that killed 77 people on the same day. He was obviously referring to the open criticism of the country's military intelligence chief by the leader of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN). FLN Secretary General Amar Saadani, a staunch supporter of Bouteflika for a fourth term in April elections, demanded Gen. Mohamed Mediene, chief of the Department of Intelligence and Security, resign. Saadani accused Mediene, alias "Toufik," of preventing President Bouteflika from running for a fourth term and interfering in the work of political parties, the judiciary and the press. Bouteflika, however, has sided with the military. "Even if public opinion is accustomed to excesses from certain circles at the approach of elections, this time, the fury has taken a magnitude that our country has never known since independence as it attempts to undermine the unity of the People's National Army and the country's stability and its image in the international community," said Bouteflika in the message. The ailing president has yet to declare whether his health will allow him to run again in the April 17 presidential elections. He was hospitalized in Paris for three months last year. A Hercules C-130 transport aircraft crashed around Tuesday noon in the eastern Oum El Bouaghi province. There was only one survivor. The president has declared three days of national mourning starting Wednesday.