Chadli Bendjedid

Chadli Bendjedid was an Algerian soldier and statesman who served as president of Algeria from 1979 to 1992. A veteran of the war of independence, he led the country during the move to a multiparty system in 1989. He was born on 14 April 1929 at Sebâa, commune of Bouteldja, wilaya of El Tarf, and died on 6 October 2012 in Algiers.

Bendjedid's father was a farmer who owned his land.

In 1955 he joined the National Liberation Army (ALN), the armed wing of the independence movement, in the Constantine region. By 1958 he was a captain and a zone commander, and in 1961 he led the northern operational zone.

After independence in 1962 he commanded the military region of Constantine, and from 1964 to 1978 the 2nd military region, based in Oran. Following the death of President Houari Boumediene, he was elected president on 7 February 1979.

Re-elected in 1984, Bendjedid began economic reforms in 1987. In October 1988, strikes and protests took place in Algiers. A new constitution, approved on 23 February 1989 soon after his third election, allowed several political parties.

On 11 January 1992 he resigned from the presidency. He died at 83 and was buried the next day at El Alia cemetery, beside Ahmed Ben Bella. The first volume of his memoirs was published in Algiers a few weeks later.