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| On Friday Mr Macron met French representatives of a Rwandan genocide survivors group. AFP |
President Emmanuel Macron has appointed researchers to carry out a two-year investigation into the role of the French army in the Rwandan genocide that is still a source of tension between Paris and Kigali 25 years later.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital to push for the removal of the entire political structure, built around the ruling party, army officers, businessmen, unions and veterans of a 1954-62 independence war against France.
โWe want to uproot the symbols of the system,โ said teacher Ahmed Badili.
โWe want radical change. No need for temporary solutions,โ said state bank employee Noureddine Dimi, 52.
The intelligence chief, retired army general Athmane Tartag, was a close ally of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who quit on Tuesday under pressure from the army.
The military said it was acting in the national interest following weeks of anti-government demonstrations.
Tartagโs departure was reported by the private Ennahar TV, who added that his powerful intelligence position, currently under the authority of the presidency, would return to the supervision of the defence ministry.
No replacement for Tartag has been announced.
The intelligence service was an important component of the militaryโs powerful influence in national affairs and played a backroom role in politics as well as in the 1990s civil war.
But in 2016 Bouteflika, removed it from the supervision of the defence ministry and placed it under the authority of the presidency to try to ease it out of the political sphere.
Algeria is now in the hands of a caretaker government โ which is unlikely to mollify anger on the streets โ which will stay in office until elections in three months time. No clear successor to Bouteflika has emerged.
In the weeks before Bouteflikaโs resignation, his inner circle was depleted by the resignation of several of his close allies from influential positions in politics and business.
