Ahmed
Ben Bella was born in Maghnia, Algeria,
in 1916. He served in the French
Army during the Second
World War. After the war he became involved in the independence
movement and in 1949 became leader of Organisation Speciale, the paramilitary
wing of the Party of the Algerian People.
Ben
Bella was captured in 1952 but he escaped to Egypt where he founded
the National Liberation Front (FLN). Under the leadership of Ben Bella
the FLN fought a long war of independence from France.
In
1962 Algeria gained its independence and Ben Bella became the country's
first prime minister and in 1963 was elected president. Ben Bella
attempted to establish a system similar to the one led by Gamal
Abdel Nasser
in
Egypt.
However
Ben Bella was deposed in 1965 in a military coup led by General Houari
Boumedienne and was kept under house arrest until 1979. He spent
the next ten years in exile but in 1990 he returned to live in Algeria.
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