World: Who's on First?

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Docile Cronies. Algerians at first were stunned by the suddenness of the coup. Then, as protesting slogans started sprouting in cities throughout the nation, the crowds mounted increasingly violent demonstrations. So as not to alarm foreign newsmen and Afro-Asian delegations, Boumedienne handled the rioters gently in the capital, though elsewhere his troops reportedly killed 30 or more. The crowds, led by Moscow-oriented Communist students, included Ben Bella supporters, emancipated women who fear that the deeply religious Boumedienne will bring back the traditional Moslem veil, as well as some industrial workers; on one occasion 100 uniformed police joined a protest march in Algiers.

Ben Bella's old cronies proved more docile. Only two Cabinet ministers followed him into prison; the others eagerly joined Boumedienne. One former exile, Abdul Hafid Boussouf, returned to take a post in the Defense Ministry, and ex-Premier Ferhat Abbas might act as figurehead Premier of the new government.

Treasured Army. Boumedienne's political leanings, say associates, are probably slightly to the right of Lenin-Peace-Prizewinner Ben Bella. He has already jailed several Communists who held Information Ministry posts, and the Communist newspaper Alger Republicain has not been printed since the coup. However, the Reds got their comeuppance because they supported Ben Bella. Far from being antiCommunist, Boumedienne has equipped his treasured 60,000-man army almost entirely with Soviet weapons.

At week's end, Algeria cut off all radio and phone communication with the outside world, presumably to prevent press coverage of civilian unrest. The new government had already protested that outsiders were misinterpreting the revolution. One junta-controlled Algiers newspaper complained that the foreign press of "the left, right and center" had ganged up to make Boumedienne's regime look like "a surrealist painting," That, from a government source, was a pretty good description.