Algeria
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 140-141 |
Page 140
Official country name: People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
Capital: Algiers
Geographic description: Located on the North African littoral, between Morocco and Tunisia, with a total area of 919,595 square miles, of which more than four-fifths is desert
Population: 32,531,853 (est. 2005)
Modern Algerian police dates only from French occupation and is modeled on the police force of metropolitan France. For many years much of the equipment of all police units was supplied by the French who also provided instructors and technical advisers.
Primary responsibility for the maintenance of law and order is exercised jointly by two separate organizations: the Gendarmerie Nationale and the Sûreté Nationale.
The Gendarmerie is a component of ANP, the National Liberation Army, and is the main rural police force. Operationally, it has been described as a combination of rural security force and national guard always on active duty. Because of its size, training, equipment inventory, and tactical deployment capability, it is regarded as a competent and versatile paramilitary force. The chief responsibilities of the gendarmerie are to maintain law and order in rural areas, to conduct security surveillance of local inhabitants, and to symbolize the authority of the government in remote regions where tensions and conflicts have occurred periodically. The Gendarmerie is organized into battalions, with companies and battalions stationed separately in villages along the coast, in such remote mountainous regions as the Kabylie and the Aures and in the plateau villages between the coast and the desert. A highly mobile force, the Gendarmerie uses both motor and animal transport and a modern communications system interconnects its various units with each other, with the army, and with the Ministry of the Interior. Gendarmerie equipment includes light infantry weapons and armored cars mounted with machine guns or light cannons.
For administrative purposes, the Gendarmerie units are allocated to the five military divisions, with head-quarters at al-Boulaida, Oahran, Bechar, Ouargla, and Quacentina.
The Sûreté Nationale is the primary policing...
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