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Algeria
Conditions of Service
The general environment of Algerian military life has long been
of sufficiently high quality to make service in the ANP a reasonably
attractive alternative to the deteriorating conditions found in
the civilian sector. Most military personnel enjoy a higher standard
of dignity and comfort than the average civilian in an economy
struggling with unemployment and inflation. Food and pay compare
favorably with that found in the civil sector. Other advantages,
such as medical care, retirement benefits, and in-service training
for later use in a civilian career, also make military service
attractive. In principle, the armed forces do not constitute a
privileged group insulated from the problems afflicting Algerian
society as a whole. Nevertheless, the system is better organized
and the standards of services provided tend to be superior to
those available in civilian life. In a possible allusion to a
decline of these standards, General Nezzar spoke of the "Spartan"
conditions of service life in discussing the problems of the armed
forces in 1992.
After independence the government realized that the loyalty and
morale of the armed forces were essential to its stability and
from the start allocated the largest share of the military budget
for personnel-related expenses: pay, allowances, rations, and
clothing. The ANP operated post exchange and commissary systems,
built holiday camps for dependents, and extended some opportunities
for duty-free purchasing. Members of the armed forces also benefited
from a social security program maintained by the ANP separately
from the national program maintained by the government.
A political commissariat, set up by Boumediene in 1963 and patterned
after similar groups in Soviet-type regimes, provided ideological
indoctrination and oversight of the armed forces. Its officers
reported directly to the FLN. The political commissariat provided
political supervision, operated its own training school, and assigned
graduates to all ANP units. Although apparently an influential
agency in the 1970s, a decade later the commissariat served mainly
as an instrument to provide goods and services to boost servicemen's
morale.
In its earlier years, the ANP adopted a reserved and austere
profile, dedicated to the national goals, exemplary in its conduct,
and modest in its lifestyle. Differences between enlisted and
officer pay, unlike those in some of the older armies of the Middle
East and North Africa, did not reflect a class distinction in
which a highly paid officer caste was separated from a mass of
conscripts by a wide chasm of pay and privilege. Since the late
1970s, however, the officer corps has enjoyed comfortable living
quarters and recreational facilities; had easy access to consumer
goods, housing, and transportation; and been insulated from the
sometimes overbearing state bureaucracy.
The officer corps is not characterized by elaborate ceremony,
ostentatious attire, or an inflated rank structure. To maintain
the revolutionary tradition of equality, the military hierarchy
was deliberately limited to the rank of colonel. In 1984 this
system was modified when the ranks of brigadier general and major
general were created. A number of promotions in 1992 raised eight
of some twenty brigadier generals to major general. The result
was that commanders of similar rank often held vastly different
command responsibilities. Seasoned and competent officers with
relatively low ranks often held positions that in other armed
forces would be associated with higher ranks.
Data as of December 1993
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