Algeria goes into shock after a popular Rai singer is shot dead by a group of Islamic fundamentalists, reports Amer OualiHundreds of Algerians, many in tears, gathered at the Tizi-Ouzou hospital to file past the body of a popular Berber singer gunned down by suspected Islamic militants. Lounes Matoub was ambushed shortly after noon on a mountain road leading to his native village of Taourirt Moussa. The 42-year-old singer, who had repeatedly denounced Muslim fundamentalist violence in Algeria, was killed after his car was stopped at a roadblock by suspected militants of the extremist Armed Islamic Group (GIA). He was hit by three bullets in the chest and one in the neck. His wife and his two sisters-in-law were wounded.The group was heading home after lunching at a restaurant in Tizi Ouzou, the main town in the mainly Berber Kabylie region, 110 km east of Algiers. Tizi Ouzou which is generally animated on Thursday evenings the start of the moslem weekend was plunged into gloom. Shops andcafes closed early and the streets were almost empty. The Berber Social Movement a political party which promotes the ethnic Berber identity has called for a general strike on Sunday. It denounced `Islamic terrorists' and vowed to ``continue the combat of Lounes Matoub''.French President Jacques Chirac blasted what he called a ``cowardly murder'', adding that he hoped Matoub's voice ``will not be silenced''. Matoub's death came nearly four years after he was kidnapped by about 20 suspected members of the GIA near the site where he was killed. The GIA is the most extreme of the Islamic fundamentalist groups fighting the Algiers regime since the government annulled elections in 1992 which the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.After the September 1994 abduction, Matoub went to live in France and returned to Algeria only sporadically, notably for a rare concert. A week after the kidnapping more than 100,000 people took to the streets at Tizi-Ouzou calling for his release. Matoub wasfreed at a cafe near Tizi-Ouzou on October 10, eight days after the demonstration. He later said his kidnappers put him before a tribunal which then sentenced him to death for the contents of his songs.``I don't know why they did not kill me,'' he said. The singer published a book, Le Rebelle, in which he recounted the circumstances of the kidnapping. Last year he said during a concert in France that only if Algeria became a secular state would the crisis there end. He also confirmed at the time that he had been threatened by the GIA repeatedly but did not appear to be impressed by the Muslim fanatics.Matoub was the latest in a long list of celebrities who have been murdered in the Algerian civil war.Popular singer Bechiri Boudjema, better known as Cheb Aziz, 28, was found dead in the city of Constantine in September last year. In September 1994, Cheb Hasni, another Rai star, was killed by the GIA at Oran. In February 1995 one of Algeria's most famous musicians and producers, Rachid, was killed inOran. In August, singer Lila Amara was shot dead along with her husband Bachir near Algiers.Muslim fundamentalists consider music unlawful as it allegedly distracts believers from the holy words of the Koran. In regions dominated by the fundamentalists, music has been banned from public places and ceremonies such as marriages.
