HIBAPRESS – Chafiq Anouri
In the early eighties of the last century, one of the strangest incidents in the history of Algeria occurred, which continued to stir up a lot of ink, due to its circumstances and the way it was dealt with by the presidency of the republic. This concerns the crash of the "Mystère" plane that was carrying the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Seddik Benyahia, in the Malian capital, Bamako.
The crash of Benyahia's plane
Algerian officials did not wait long to declare official mourning, even before confirming the death of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which was justified by Mohieddine Amimour, who was then one of the senior aides to President Chadli Bendjedid, as a result of the "scarcity of information" that was arriving from the air control center in Senegal.
Amimour said in his book "Days with President Houari Boumediene" that Mohamed Seddik Benyahia, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, had been involved in a crash while heading to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, to attend the work of the African Elders Committee to resolve the Moroccan Sahara issue, which was later held in Nairobi without Benyahia.
Haste in declaring mourning
Amimour mentioned in his memoirs that the "Mystère 20" plane carrying Benyahia crashed in the Malian capital, Bamako, while preparing to land to refuel, while the President's advisors and aides in the Presidential Palace were following the information that was coming from the air control center in Senegal, which he said was "scarce".
According to the former Algerian official, "there was haste at one of the executive levels (without naming any of the executive levels, which is likely to be related to the President or the army, given the nature of the state) that led to the declaration of a state of official mourning."
An accident or a failed assassination attempt?
Amimour mentioned that the reversal of mourning, after it turned out that Benyahia had survived the crash, was "worse than imposing it," but, he justifies "the nature of every human effort, in circumstances like these, even if some did not disappoint my expectations only lowered the list to the presidency, which is a method that some resorted to, when they made a mistake, to avoid blame and reproach."
Although Amimour did not indicate that the Bamako incident was an "assassination attempt," he hinted at that, when he used in the context of his narration of what Benyahia was heading to, which is the meetings of the African Elders Committee to resolve the Moroccan Sahara issue, (he used) the sentence: "Fate willed (and I find no other expression) that the committee meeting be held in Nairobi without Benyahia."
Amimour's plane crashes again!
The strange thing about the matter is that the incident, which was likely intended to accuse Morocco or France of being behind it in the service of Rabat's interests in the Sahara conflict, was repeated just a year later, but immediately after Benyahia completed medical treatment and returned to resume his activities at the head of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Amimour stated that Benyahia returned, after undergoing intensive medical treatment, to carry out his activities as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in this context headed to both Iraq and Iran, at the head of a delegation of the best cadres of the ministry, to stop the bleeding of the Iran-Iraq war, and his plane crashed, and this time he was killed with all those who were with him.
No mourning except after seeing the bodies!
According to Amimour, Benyahia was on board a new presidential plane of the "Grumman 2" American-made type, which replaced the French-made "Mystère", which had crashed in Mali, and the first two letters of the name of the late President Houari Boumediene H.B. were chosen as the international number of the new plane.
According to what Amimour stated, the Algerian presidency did not declare mourning this time, except after taking a set of measures, including sending a delegation to confirm the death by examining the bodies and starting to bring them, then informing the families, and finally imposing official mourning.
Algerian leaders hide the cause of the plane crash!
Algeria did not announce the cause of the crash of the plane that was carrying its Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the politician and former minister Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, who later succeeded Benyahia in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated during his appearance as a guest on the program "Witness of the Era" more than a decade ago, that the Iraqi army was behind the incident.
According to Ibrahimi's account, an Algerian committee was sent to the crash site, and an investigation was opened, which revealed that it was shot down by a Russian-made missile sold to the Iraqi army, which the presidency led by Chadli Bendjedid did not announce, which opened the door to doubts about the file.
