SUMMARY

GIA – El Forkane Battalion (Groupe islamique armée: Armed Islamic Group – Holy Quran Battalion) is a splinter group from the Algerian rebel group GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé, Armed Islamic Group) also known as Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallah. GIA emerged in 1992, in the turmoil following the banning of the Islamic party FIS (Front islamique du salut, Islamic Salvation Front) after its victory in the parliamentary elections. GIA’s goals were focused on the re-islamisation of the Algerian society; they adhered to a strict interpretation of the Islamic values and beliefs. Their overall goal was a society built on Islamic values, in Algeria, but ultimately, the world. GIA was initially led, and formed by, Mansouri Miliani, a former member of MIA (Mouvement islamique algérien; Armed Islamique Movement), another Islamic rebel group active in Algeria at the time. Eventually several groups merged into GIA, making it one, of two, large rebel groups in Algeria, the other one being AIS (Armée Islamique du Salut, Islamique Salvation Army). In 1997 a nationwide ceasefire was declared by AIS, in addition there was a denunciation concerning the use of violence towards civilians. This ceasefire was received by GIA in a differentiated manner; it subsequently led to the formation of several sub groups of GIA, which have been, active in various categories of organized violence.

GIA – El Forkane Battalion (Groupe islamique armée: Armed Islamic Group – Holy Quran Battalion) was formed when the internal disagreements within GIA became too immense to handle within the same organization. The El Forkane Battalion was one of many splinter groups that emerged from the original formation of GIA. During the turbulent period of disintegration these splinter groups found themselves fighting each other. The El Forkane Battalion was short-lived as an organized group. They first became active in 1998 when members of the El Forkane Battalion fought another splinter group of GIA, namely the El Khadra Battalion. The clashes that took place were fought over a couple of weeks in Sidi Djialli, in the Tlemcen province, in the far west of Algeria. The situation was confused, and for a couple of weeks the ANP (National Peoples Army) had the mountains surrounded. It was during this siege that the tensions amongst the different splinter groups exploded into armed combat. Due to its short period of existence it is difficult to establish any one leading figure in the group, and it is difficult to establish any pattern since the violence was limited to a two week period during the summer of 1998. Following the violence the El Forkane Battalion was weakened, and by 2004 when the Algerian authorities intensified their efforts, combining military and judicial operations, the remnants of the El Forkane Battalion, as well as the entire GIA organization was principally obliterated. Several leading figures within the rebel networks were arrested, others were killed, yet others were offered amnesties, this did however not ease the situation to any large extent, the Islamic rebellion has continued through other groups and led by other individuals.

GIA – El Forkane Battalion has been involved in non-state category of UCDP organised violence