Mustapha Benboulaïd

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Mustapha Benboulaïd or Mostefa Ben Boulaïd (b. 1917; d. 1956) was an Algerian nationalist and the "father" of the Algerian revolution, which took place between 1954 to 1962.

[edit] Biography

Mustapha Benboulaid (also Mostefa Ben Boulaïd) was born in February 1917 in Arris in the Aurès mountain region of Algeria He was educuated at the local village primary school in Batna Province and at the school of l'Association des Ulémas Musulmans Algériens. He emigrated to France in 1937, saw the situation of Algerians there at first hand and formed a union to defend their rights.

He served his mandatory military service with the Algerian 11th Regiment Riflemen, reaching the rank of Corporal, and was mobilised during World War II, when he saw combat, was awarded the Croix de Guerre and reached the rank of Adjutant. After the war, he went into business, operating a bus company, and became chair of the local group of traders, which enabled him to build up a network of knowledge that he was to use later.

In 1946, he joined the PPA Algerian People's Party, stood in the elections to the Algeria Assembly in 1948 and was elected by a landslide victory. The French authorities however disallowed the results of the election and began to monitor him closely. The PPA was banned by the French authorities and he joined the MTLD, which replaced the PPA. He met with other nationalists, and demanded immediate action against colonialism.

He played an important role in the creation of l'Organisation Spéciale, providing clandestine political education for young people and military training. He began to acquire weapons, purchasing them in Libya, and participated in harboring militants pursued by the authorities. Benboulaid believed that the French could be beaten and that the time was right to begin the armed struggle for independence. He failed however, to persuade Messali el Hadj, the head of MTLD, and other politicians except for Belkacem Krim, and on 1954-06-22, he played an important role in establishing le Comité Révolutionnaire d'Unité et d'Action, (the Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action), the parent organization of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN; National Liberation Front). He was responsible for the area of Aurès (Wilaya 1), and then took part in the outbreak of the insurgency with troops in the Aurès under his command opening the Algerian war of independence with attacks on 31 October and 1 November 1954.

He had been wounded by the police in south Tunisia when attending a meeting on 25 October to set the date of the uprising but was at the head of his troops, directing the insurgency, on 1 November. In January 1955, he set out on foot to Tripoli with his guide to buy weapons, only to be arrested on the Libyan-Tunisia border on 11 February. He was tried by military court in Constantine on 22 June and sentenced to death. However, he escaped from Constantine prison on 4 November and resumed his guerrilla command. On 22-March-1956, he was killed by a booby-trapped field radio, parachuted by French troops.

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