Unequal treatment: Brahim Ghali and Djamila Bouhired

Brahim Ghali, 72 years old, started his professional life in the Nomad Troops of the Spanish Army with the rank of corporal. He was one of the founders of the Polisario Front. He held the post of commander of the military branch of that political-military organisation, and later that of "Minister of Defence" of the self-proclaimed independent Sahrawi Republic, among others. 

Ghali is a man trusted by Algeria's generals, on whom the Polisario depends and on whose budgets it depends. Since 2008, he has held the post of "Polisario ambassador" in Algiers, and after the death of the secretary general of the political-military movement, Mohamed Abdelaziz, in 2016, the Algerian military leadership presented him as the only candidate to replace the deceased. 

Indeed, before some 2,000 Polisario delegates gathered on 9 July 2016 at an extraordinary congress in Tindouf (Algeria), Brahim Ghali, the only candidate for the post, was elected to the highest office of the organisation and its virtual republic, the "SADR". This is how the current alias Ben Bettouch was elected. It is surprising that there is no reference whatsoever to his education and training, nor to his cultural level; there is a total absence of any such information about the person who holds the highest military and political office in this organisation.

The current President of the Algerian Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who came to office by the grace of the military, claimed a few weeks ago that the hospital system in Algeria is one of the best in the world, in order to reassure Algerian citizens in these times of pandemic.

Despite this high quality of health care, the Algerian regime chose to send its protégé Brahim Ghali on a medical plane to Spain for medical care on humanitarian grounds, without explaining to anyone why it opted for this costly and complicated hospitalisation, given that the health care system in Algeria is one of the best in the world. Nor did he explain why he provided a false passport and an identity of an Algerian citizen whom the regime considers to be a president of a republic installed on territory on loan from Algeria. 

Since 2019, the Algerian people have been demonstrating in the streets every Friday demanding a civilian and not a military regime. In this way, they managed to oust the former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and describe the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as a military appointee with little credibility. 

With the case of Brahim Ghali, the regime unmasks itself, disqualifies itself and confirms the accusations of thousands of demonstrators. The Ghali case, alias Ben Bettouch, is becoming a complicated problem and unacceptable for the Algerian people, because his costly hospitalisation, at all levels, coincides with another serious case: the admission to a public hospital, at the age of 85, of Djamila Bouhired, one of the heroines of the struggle for Algerian independence, the pride and true living symbol of the struggle for emancipation.
 

Djamila Bouhired is one of the best known figures in the struggle for Algerian independence, the pride and living symbol of Algerian women's struggle. She is one of the six roses who were condemned to death by the French colonial regime. She was spared execution thanks to the intense international campaign on her behalf. She was imprisoned for many years in difficult conditions until 1962. 

She regained her freedom just as Algeria gained its independence from the colonial yoke. Several films were made about her heroic role in the struggle for independence within a United Maghreb, as proclaimed in the Manifesto of the First of November 1954. He fought for an independent, free, civil and democratic Algeria. 

However, in the face of the assault on power carried out by the military of the Frontier Army, usurping the legitimacy of the Revolution, Djamila refused to have any more films made about her in order to prevent the regime from exploiting her image to legitimise itself.

Since the usurpation of power by the army, Djamila Bouhired has discreetly left political and public life. She reappeared in 2019, at the age of 83, taking part in the demonstrations alongside the Algerian people against the attempts to impose Abdelaziz Bouteflika as President of the Republic for the fifth time. Demonstrations known as the Hirak still take place in Algerian cities every Tuesday and Friday, demanding a democratic civilian regime and not a military one. 

When the medical plane was transporting Brahim Ghali, alias Ben Bettouch, from Algeria to Spain for medical treatment on humanitarian grounds, while Algerians are not allowed to travel, the Algerian press reported that the heroine Djamila Bouhired, now 85 years old, had been hospitalised as a result of COVID 19.

In a surprising press release, the Algerian people were informed with these words: "Affected by COVID-19, Djamila Bouhired is hospitalised at the Mustapha University Hospital in Algiers. 85 years old, diabetic and hypertensive, she has not been vaccinated. The dose that was rightfully hers was diverted in favour of a privileged person in power, younger and in good health". This was denounced in a report by journalist Arezki Ait Larbi, who adds that Djamila is "very weak and speaks with difficulty". "The icon of the Algerian revolution, however, wants to greet all the young fighters of the 'Hirak' resistance, 'honour and future of this country'," he added.

Two sad news items, different and opposite, two trajectories, two names: that of a godson of the generals of Algiers who was given privileged treatment without being Algerian, even though he is a harmful subject who serves to cause discord and almost always to cause confrontations between brotherly and friendly countries; and, on the other hand, the treatment reserved by the same military caste for the daughter of the Algerian revolution, the daughter of the people who consider her their heroine, and who, at 85 years of age, hypertensive, diabetic, was deprived of the vaccination she was entitled to, and given to a younger man. Sad news for the Algerian and Maghreb people about the hospitalisation of this heroine: unequal, selective and unjust treatment.