CiteBendjedid, Chadli
Bendjedid, Chadli shăd´lē bĕnjədēd´ [key], 1929–2012, Algerian army officer and political leader, president of Algeria (1979–92). A noncommissioned officer in France's Algerian army, he fought in Indochina, but in 1954 joined the National Liberation Front to fight for Algerian independence. An ally of Houari Boumedienne , Bendjedid sided with him in his overthrow (1965) of Ahmed Ben Bella . Bendjedid became a colonel in 1969 and when President Boumedienne died in 1978, he was the only candidate for the presidency. In the late 1980s Bendjedid instituted a multiparty system and other reforms, but when Islamists were poised to win power in 1992 he was forced out by the army and a military crackdown ensued.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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