ALGIERS, Jan 13 (AFP) - Algerian army reinforcements moved in to comb areas harboring Islamists hostile to the amnesty, which expired Thursday.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has vowed to crack down mercilessly on Muslims who continue to wage civil war against the military-backed government once the amnesty offer, part of his "civil reconciliation" program, expires.
Troops were reportedly moving up to reinforce units already massed in Jijel, 300 km (180 miles) east of the capital in the Kabylie region, and near Islamist opposition strongholds in the northwest of the north African country. No official statement has been made on the deployments.
Bouteflika has staked his presidency on his bid to end the civil war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since 1992. The civil war began when the pro-French government decided to annul free elections that Islamist parties were poised to win.
His amnesty offer had hitherto failed to induce the Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and the larger Armed Islamic Group (GIA) to renounce their campaigns. GSPC leader Hassan Hattab, 32, and GIA leader Antar Zouabri had both rejected Bouteflika's peace overtures offering a full or partial amnesty to those who have not been implicated in "blood crimes," or public bombings.
Reports said the troops deployed this week would take preventive measures against possible reprisals by dissidents against the more moderate Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), which was dissolved by its leadership on Tuesday.
Gendarmes, soldiers and republican guards were deployed near the AIS stronghold Jijel after Bouteflika granted the group a blanket amnesty. The authorities also reportedly want to prevent GIA fighters from occupying camps deserted by the AIS.
AIS members, who had been observing a ceasefire since October 1997, were expected to turn themselves in en masse, including leader Madani Mezrag, as the amnesty deadline expired.
The AIS is the armed wing of the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which was poised to win general elections in January 1992 after sweeping the first round, before the army stepped in to annul the polls.
Hattab created his breakaway GSPC group in September 1998, operating mainly around Kabylie in the northeast of the country and in part of Mitidja, a fertile agricultural plain around Algiers, territory Hattab disputed with his rival Zouabri.
An Algerian army deserter, Hattab said he had broken with the GIA because he opposed massacres of civilians.
The GIA, which has been blamed for much of the slaughter of civilians in the conflict, and the GSPC share the goal of installing an Islamic state in Algeria that would follow Sharia, and have refused to capitulate to a secular state.
Nevertheless, some 1,500 GIA and GSPC members have asked to benefit from the president's civil reconciliation law, and the government was earlier reported to have been in negotiations with GSPC elements that could lead to Hattab's surrender.
