(Mohammed) Ahmed Ben Bella - Before independence, Algerian independence, Recent activities

A key figure in the Algerian War of Independence against France, and Algeria's first prime minister (1962–3) and president (1963–5), born in Maghnia, NW Algeria. He fought with the Free French in World War 2, and in 1949 became head of the Organisation Spéciale, the paramilitary wing of the Algerian nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien. In 1952 he escaped from a French-Algerian prison to Cairo, where he became a key member of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). Captured by the French in 1956, he spent the remainder of the war in a French prison. Following independence (1962) he became president, but was deposed in 1965. After 15 years of imprisonment, he went into voluntary exile in 1980, returning to Algeria in 1990.

Mohamed Ahmed Ben Bella

4th President of Algeria
In office September 15, 1963 – 19 June 1965
Preceded by	Ferhat Abbas
Succeeded by	Houari Boumédiènne
Born	December 25, 1918 Maghnia, Algeria
Political party	FNL

Mohamed Ahmed Ben Bella (Muhammad Ahmad Bin Balla) (Arabic: أحمد بن بلّة‎) (born December 25, 1918, Maghnia, Algeria) was the first President of Algeria, and seen by many as the Father of the Nation. Ben Bella was born in a small village in western Algeria during the height of the French colonial period to a Sufi Muslim family. Ben Bella returned to Algeria to find his father and three of his brothers dead and the fourth dying. Service in the French military benefitted Ben Bella in two major ways: he learned military skills and saw first hand the discrimination and inequality of the Algerian people under French colonial control.

Before independence

During the Second World War he served in the Free French army, and was decorated for bravery. Ben Bella's first language was French, not Arabic. While in Egypt, Ben Bella met the Egyptian president, Gamel Abdel Nasser. When Nasser brought Ben Bella to speak for the first time to an Egyptian audience, he broke into tears because he could not speak Arabic.

Algerian independence

After Algeria's independence was recognized, Ben Bella quickly became more popular, and thereby more powerful. In June 1962, he challenged the leadership of Premier Benyoucef Ben Khedda; this led to several disputes among his rivals in the FLN, which were quickly suppressed by Ben Bella's rapidly growing number of supporters, most notably within the armed forces. By September, Bella was in control of Algeria by all but name, and was elected as premier in a one-sided election on 20 September, which was recognized by the United States on September 29. Afterwards, Ben Bella declared that Algeria would follow a neutral course in world politics; Kennedy requesting more aid for Algeria, and with Fidel Castro, expressing approval of Castro's demands for the abandonment of Guantanamo Bay, and returned to Algeria requesting that France withdraw from its bases there.

In 1963 he was elected President in an uncontested election, and also led Algeria's costly but ultimately victorious defense against Moroccan invasion in the Sand war. After stabilizing the country, Ben Bella embarked on a series of popular but somewhat anarchic land reforms to the benefit of landless farmers, and increasingly turned to socialist rhetoric. In 1965, Ben Bella was deposed by army strongman and close friend Houari Boumédiènne in 1965, and placed under house arrest until 1980, when he was granted exile in Switzerland.

Recent activities

Ben Bella was elected President of the International Campaign Against Aggression on Iraq at its Cairo Conference. Ben Bella has described himself numerous times in interviews as an Islamist of a mild and peace loving flavor.