I know Lakhdar Brahimi slightly, and it grieves me to see him having to apologise to the Syrian people for failing to get the Syrian government (he specified) to budge from its starting position in the talks he has been trying to sponsor in Geneva.
He was London ambassador of the Boumedienne government in Algeria and represented it well (he admired Boumedienne's intellect). In the government of Chadli Bendjedid which was formed at a national congress following Boumedienne's death, he became Foreign Minister and I interviewed him again - for the third time I think - in his house in Algiers. I must have seemed very naive to him and he probably wouldn't remember me.
Brahimi isn't an Arab but an upper-class Kabyle from a landowning family. The Kabyles are of Berber ethnicity and have social traditions which are sort of meritocratic and aristocratic at the same time. They aren't particularly religious and have their own written language, Tamazight, which they say predates Arabic script, and their own traditional cosmology which they say predates Islam.
The Boumedienne military regime still rules Algeria. The current president was Brahimi's old boss, being an extremely young foreign minister at the time. But Mr Brahimi has been an international diplomat for years, long gone from Algerian national politics. He is looking worried and old, poor fellow, although I believe he is five or six years younger than I am, a year or two older than the present Algerian president.
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Fascinating stuff AC. You should be contributing to 'From Our Own Correspondent'.
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It was ages ago. I'm out of date with the current picture. Even worrying if I got Tamazight quite right...
Kabylie is a mountainous region of North-Eastern Algeria and its people occupy it in settled fashion. They are tough and clever. The nomad Tuaregs of the great Sahara are also Berbers, speaking a language related to but not identical with Kabyle. They too are tough and clever. They live in apparent harmony with their camels, horses and numerous black slaves, always known as 'former slaves' in the PC Algeria of my time...
Still seems like yesterday somehow.
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Chap on Al Jazeera pointed out earlier that both the Syrian govt and the US, not to mention Russia, are more engaged in the matter of Syrian chemical weapon reduction than the Geneva peace negotiations. That seemed to make quite a lot of sense.
Meanwhile therefore Syria continues to be immersed in its 'horrible crisis' and the bloodstained Assad tyranny, along with some elements of the opposition, continue to murder a lot of Syrians.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 16 Feb 14 at 02:14
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The Syrian mess - Bromptonaut
