I spent 24 and a half years in prison
AHMED BEN BELLAI can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it’s from there that all those who fought left.
More Ahmed Ben Bella Quotes
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In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
I’m optimistic because I’m pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
These are the multinationals, like General Motors and Nestle; these are the big industrial groups that weigh, on the monetary scale, much more than big countries like Egypt.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries – like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain – to occupy countries outside of Europe.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
I was one of the organisers of its struggle for liberation. I likewise actively participated in all the struggles for liberation.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
I’m 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn’t changed; it’s the same fervour that drives me.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
I am not a Marxist, but I place myself resolutely at the left.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France
AHMED BEN BELLA -
We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks.
AHMED BEN BELLA -
This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.
AHMED BEN BELLA