SUMMARY
AIS has during its existence had several names, originally the organization was named MIA (Mouvement Islamique Armée), this name was used up until 1993. In 1993 FIS (Front Islamique du Salut; Islamic Salvation Front), a political party that dates back to 1989 recognized that in order to achieve any change in the Algerian society there was a need for a militant wing. This led to the incorporation of MIA into the organization of FIS. During 1993 the organization fought under the name of FIS, acting as a militant wing of the mother party, in order to influence the incumbent government. In 1994 the FIS established, based on their existing militant wing, a new military organization, AIS (Armée Islamique du Salut), AIS consisted of several small groups but a majority of the group was made up of former MIA members. During 1997 AIS was acting on its own mandate, the ties to FIS were considered to be weakened, or even cut, therefore the organization was in its own right considered an organized rebel movement under the name of AIS as of 1997.
The early history of AIS is a parallel to the history of FIS. In 1988 the Algerian constitution was amended to include the possibility of other parties to challenge the ruling FLN (National Liberation Front). Given this opportunity FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) was established as a political party. During the early nineties, it became clear to FIS that in order to influence the Algerian government it was in need of military muscle. In order to achieve this MIA (Mouvement Islamique Armée) was integrated as the militant wing of FIS. The elections held in December 1991 granted FIS wide popular support in the first round. Before there could be any second round the electoral process was canceled. Simultaneously a large portion of the FIS leadership was arrested, in some cases sentenced to long terms in prison. It was not, however, until 1993 that FIS actively called for armed resistance. At this point the group changed its name, using only the name of the party; FIS. This arrangement was in place until the militant wing of FIS became more and more independent. Following the incomplete elections of 1991/1992 FIS set up an exile organization that negotiated and influenced Algerian politics, mostly from Italy. A significant event, which established AIS, formerly FIS (AIS) as an organization in its own right was the proposal of a unilateral ceasefire on 21 September 1997; this incentive was taken without collaboration with the exiled FIS leadership, and in the claims stated by AIS FIS was not mentioned. This event indicated that the organization had split, that the political branch was no longer in control of its militant wing. Once AIS was recognized as an organization of its own, negotiations with the government became more intense. The armed struggle was downplayed, in favor of negotiating, and due to the ceasefire initiated by AIS, a majority of the rebels were granted amnesties in the late nineties, early 2000’s. The normalization of the relationship with the government led to a decrease in violence, and by the year 2000 AIS was no longer active in any type of violence, the last recorded non-state violence perpetrated by AIS dates back to 1998.
The leadership of AIS was initially closely connected to the leadership of FIS; by 1994 the leadership was however taken over by the former head of MIA, Abdelkader Chebouti. Mr. Chebouti was later superseded by Mr. Madani Mezrag. Mr. Mezrag remained in a leading position. By the time of the ceasefire, and subsequent amnesties he offered his services to the Algerian government to fight GIA (Groupe islamique armé) and GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) the, at the time, other dominant rebel groups.
During the years leading up to the ceasefire of 1997 AIS was heavily involved in state-based violence, in addition to the non-state violence recorded during 1995, 1997, and 1998. AIS has however not been involved in the third category of violence, one-sided, violence directed towards civilians.
AIS has been involved in the intrastate and non-state categories of UCDP organised violence.
