THE "METHOD" OF SANT'EGIDIO
ALGERIA
After the public disclosure of the Mozambican success, various requests for help arrived to the Community. In September 1994, during the inter-religious meeting in Assisi, several Algerian friends asked for intervention in their country prey to a serious internal political crisis. The Algerian Platform is the fruit of the intense work which continued until January of the following year. In two meetings convened by the Community, the leaders of the major Algerian political parties, who had not seen each other for years, met in Sant'Egidio. The Platform is an "offering of peace" which makes possible a way out of violence on the basis of shared values, with the perspective that the process of democratization of society and political life is necessary. Although the document was not accepted by the Algerian regime, the Platform remains, until the referendum on "civil concord" at the end of 1999 and beyond, the only document largely consensual produced by the political actors of the country. The spirit and the method of the Rome Platform is still today in Algeria referred to for its value for reconciliation and as a model for future hopeful developments along a way of peace yet to be reached.
BOOKS
Algeria in ostaggio, di Marco Impagliazzo >>
