Krim Belkacem
Encyclopedia
Aït Yahia Moussa
Aït Yahia Moussa is a town and commune in Tizi Ouzou Province in northern Algeria.-References:...
, Tizi Ouzou Province
Tizi Ouzou Province
Tizi Ouzou is a province in Algeria, named after its capital.-Administrative divisions:The province is divided into 21 districts , which are further divided into 67 communes or municipalities.-Districts:# Aïn El Hammam...
- October 18, 1970) was an Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary fighter and politician.
Krim was born in the village of Aït Yahia Moussa
Aït Yahia Moussa
Aït Yahia Moussa is a town and commune in Tizi Ouzou Province in northern Algeria.-References:...
(now in Tizi Ouzou Province
Tizi Ouzou Province
Tizi Ouzou is a province in Algeria, named after its capital.-Administrative divisions:The province is divided into 21 districts , which are further divided into 67 communes or municipalities.-Districts:# Aïn El Hammam...
) in the Berber-speaking Kabylia region of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
.
During the Second World War, he joined the French Army, and was promoted corporal in the First Algerian Sharpshooter Regiment, reputedly becoming an excellent shot. Demobilized on October 4, 1945, he returned to his home village, where he took up a bureaucratic post. Krim joined the underground Algerian People's Party
Algerian People's Party
The Algerian People's Party , was a successor organization of the North African Star , led by veteran Algerian nationalist Messali Hadj. It was formed on March 11, 1937...
at the beginning of 1946, setting up clandestine cells in 12 villages around Draa el-Mizan. Accused of the murder of a forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
warden in 1947, he was hunted and he joined the maquis
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...
under the nom de guerre of Si Rabah with Moh Nachid, Mohand Talah, Messaoud Ben Arab.
Twice sentenced to death by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
tribunals in 1947 and 1950, he became the Kabylie responsible of the PPA
Algerian People's Party
The Algerian People's Party , was a successor organization of the North African Star , led by veteran Algerian nationalist Messali Hadj. It was formed on March 11, 1937...
-MTLD paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organization founded in February 1947 by Messali Hadj
Messali Hadj
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from France...
, the Organisation Spéciale, at the head of 22 members of the resistance (maquisards).
During the Algerian War of Independence, Krim was chief of the FLN's 3rd Wilaya, Kabylia and its surrounding area. After his important role at the Soummam Congress--in which the FLN formalized its revolutionary program--Krim became one of the most important and powerful of all the FLN chiefs.
Belkacem, who left Algeria after the Battle of Algiers
Battle of Algiers (1957)
The Battle of Algiers was a campaign of guerrilla warfare carried out by the National Liberation Front against the French Algerian authorities from late 1956 to late 1957. The conflict began as a series of hit-and-run attacks by the FLN against the French Police in Algiers. Violence escalated...
, formed an alliance with Lakhdar Ben Tobbal
Lakhdar Ben Tobbal
Slimane Ben Tobbal , better known as Lakhdar Ben Tobbal, is a former Algerian resistance fighter.Ben Tobbal was a member of the nationalist Parti du peuple Algérien , and later moved on to its paramilitary organization which became the embryo of the Front de libération nationale...
and Abdelhafid Boussouf
Abdelhafid Boussouf
Abdelhafid Boussouf was an Algerian nationalist and a leader of the Front de libération nationale during the Algerian war of independence . He was a member of the GPRA exile government, serving as minister of armaments...
against Abane Ramdane
Abane Ramdane
Abane Ramdane was an Algerian revolutionarist born in Kabylie. He was the architect of the Congress of Soummam in 1956....
. He was the first to be Minister of Defense, then Foreign Minister, in the provisional Government of the Algerian republic (GPRA
Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic
The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic was the government-in-exile of the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale during the latter part of the Algerian War of Independence .- Creation and purpose :The GPRA was set up in Cairo, Egypt, by the FLN on September 19, 1958, four years...
) in 1958, and later the principal Algerian negotiator of the agreements of Évian
Évian Accords
The Évian Accords comprise a treaty which was signed in 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France by France and the F.L.N. . The Accords put an end to the Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for March 19, and formalized the idea of cooperative exchange between the two countries...
in March 1962. Belkacem was in opposition to the creation of the Political Bureau of the FLN
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
in July 1962 by Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella
Mohamed Ahmed Ben Bella was a soldier and Algerian revolutionary, who became the first President of Algeria.-Youth:...
, Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Houari Boumedienne, and Muhammad Khidr.
After the June 19, 1965 takeover by the Political Bureau, he returned to opposition
Opposition (politics)
In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government , party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country...
, favouring more federalist views than Boumedienne's centralist policies. Accused of having organized an assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt against Boumedienne, he was sentenced to death in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
. He was found assassinated in 1970 in a hotel room in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
Belkacem was posthumously rehabilitated by the Algerian state by being buried in the Carré des Martyrs on October 24, 1984.