As a suicide bomber he was most unusual. But the story of Rabah Bechla, a 63-year-old grandfather of seven who rammed an explosive-packed truck into a UN office here one week ago, killing 17, is in many ways the story of Algeria itself.
"Many Algerians can identify with this story," said Mouloud Hamrouche, a former prime minister of the same age..."He is a real-life example of what has gone wrong over the years."
His age has thrown into shock a nation accustomed to terror - but a terror usually associated with the malleable impulsiveness of youth.
Algerians are further intrigued by Bechla because his life contains the story of the problems that have haunted this country for six decades. As recounted by family members at Bechla's home, a cement shack in the village of Heraoua, some 30 kilometers, or 50 miles, from the capital, the family history in those years stretches from his grandfather who fought for France against Germany in World War II, his father who they say was tortured and killed by the French during the War of Independence, and Bechla's decision to vote for the Islamists in the 1991 presidential election that was subsequently canceled.
The trajectory continues to the present. One of his sons did something that many other young Algerians have tried: He made a desperate decision to try to get into Spain as an illegal immigrant.
At the home in Heraoua, footsteps away from the local police station, Bechla's children and his 82-year-old mother Zohra were still in a state of shock.
Zohra Bechla, 82, holding a picture of her son Rabah Bechlah, the suicide bomber, with his sons, Younes, left, and Athmane. Ouaheb Hebbat/Sipa, for
International Herald Tribune
"The country is rich, but the people are poor."
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By Katrin Bennhold
Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune
