Tizi Ouzou, Algeria: Algeria's president mingled with crowds of potential voters as he campaigned on Friday for re-election in the restive Kabylie region of Algeria, a hotbed of terrorists and a stronghold of the leftist opposition.
Hundreds of police, sharpshooters and armoured vehicles were on hand in Tizi Ouzou, the region's main city, as Abdul Aziz Bouteflika waded through crowds of supporters. The 72-year-old leader was greeted by women's traditional cries of acclaim and celebratory gunshots by tribesmen from the Kabylie ethnic minority.
In the days before Bouteflika's visit, Al Qaida-linked militants carried out two deadly attacks in the region, officials said
Militants killed a lieutenant colonel on Thursday, and an attempt by militants to storm a police station south of Tizi Ouzou on Tuesday, killed one person and injured three, local officials and Algerian media said.
Bouteflika vowed that violence would not deter his National Reconciliation programme, aimed at healing the wounds from a decade-long civil war that killed up to 200,000 people in the 1990s.
In a speech to the crowds, he appealed to terrorists to lay down their arms and said, "we have no hatred or bitterness against you and you can rejoin the national community at any time."
The reconciliation programme, passed by referendum in 2005, offers amnesty to militants who renounce violence. Bouteflika, who has made reconciliation and national unity the cornerstones of his presidency, insisted the Kabylie region must adhere to his programme.
Because of its steep mountains and deep forests, and the Kabylie population's traditional hostility to the Arab-dominated state, many militants from Al Qaida in Islamic North Africa are based in the region.
Bouteflika is widely seen as assured of winning a third term in the April 9 race. He has also made high voter turnout a key goal, and his team is aiming for a voter participation of more than 60 per cent.
Barely 10 per cent of the population voted in last elections in the region around Tizi Ouzou.
Security was unusually tight for the president's journey, with a fully armed police officer stationed every 100 metres all along the 105-km road between capital Algiers and Tizi Ouzou. Armoured cars and helicopters patrolled the region.
