Algeria began releasing former Islamist fighters on Saturday under an amnesty program aimed at promoting national reconciliation after more than a decade of conflict, witnesses said.
The first batch of prisoners walked free from Serkadji prison in the capital Algiers.
Some knelt and kissed the soil to give thanks for their freedom before being greeted by relatives who had waited outside the building since shortly after dawn.
Similar scenes were repeated outside main jails across the country, officials said.
“Up to 2,000 prisoners will be released beginning today and over the next three days,” an official source told Reuters.
Hicham Mahmoud, freed from Serkadji jail, said: “Officials told us that 50 prisoners will be released today from Serkadji and other 150 detainees will follow in the next three days.”
“I thank Allah and President Bouteflika. It is like starting a new life. Bouteflika played a big role in that,” said Farid Harizi, 28, from outside the gate of Serkadji.
Hamzaoui Abdelkader, 63, a farmer from Medea, 43 miles southwest of Algiers, also praised Bouteflika as he waited for the release of his son Omar, 33.
“I hope that all prisoners will be released and the country opens a new page of reconciliation and peace,” he said.
A government official said 30 prisoners left the prison of Chlef, 100 miles west of Algiers, early on Saturday.
Government-approved amnesty
The amnesty approved by the government on Feb. 21 also gave Islamic guerrillas fighting the authorities six months to surrender and receive a pardon provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes and bombings of public places.
Word circulated about a possible release after the amnesty was published in the government gazette on Tuesday.
Oil exporter Algeria plunged into conflict in early 1992 after the then military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election radical Islamists were poised to win.
The violence claimed around 150,000 lives and more than $20 billion in economic losses due to a sabotage campaign by Islamic rebels.
Thousands of Islamic guerrillas have given themselves up since a partial amnesty in Jan. 2000. The last prisoner releases were in 1999.
The new amnesty offers compensation for victims of the conflict and families of disappeared people as well as aid for families of rebels killed in the fighting.
It also provides compensation for people who lost their jobs because they were believed to be associated with militancy.
Under the amnesty the military would be protected from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses.
Human rights groups and families say many of the thousands of people who disappeared were abducted by the security forces.
Government officials say many of the disappeared joined the guerrillas.
Algerians voted in favor of the amnesty in a referendum last September.