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Rabah Bitat President of the National People's Assembly

Rabah Bitat was one of the six heroes who, on November 1, 1954, lit the torch of revolution for the liberation of Algeria (Mustapha Ben Boulaid, Mohamed Boudiaf, Mourad Didouche, Larbi Ben –Mhidi, Rabah Bitat and Krim BLEKACEM). - Rabah Bitat was born on December 19, 1925 in Ain el-Kerma (Constantine). - He joined the Algerian People's Party in 1942. - He was a member of the special organization (paramilitary organization of armed struggle) in 1942. - He was one of the five historical leaders who constituted the first core of command of the current which opted for armed struggle against the occupier, and one of the members of the famous “Group of 22”. - He was Commander of the historic Wilaya IV which included the capital and Algeria at the outbreak of the Revolution of November 1, 1954. - He was incarcerated in colonial jails on March 16, 1955 and remained imprisoned until the ceasefire in March 1962. - Following independence, he became a member of the Political Bureau of the FLN party and vice-president of the Council of Ministers in the first Algerian government after independence. - He was appointed minister of state, without portfolio, before being put in charge of the Ministry of Transport from 1966 until 1977. - He was elected president of the National People's Assembly in 1977 and retained this function for three successive terms, until 1990. - He assumed the constitutional interim presidency of the republic, after the death of President Houari Boumediene on December 27, 1978. - President Abdelaziz Boutaflika awarded him, on July 5, 1999, the SADR medal, which is the highest state distinction in Algeria. - He was called back to God on April 10, 2000. - The deceased was a “man of consensus” out of love for Algeria and the stability of its institutions, as he was “the man of rupture” when necessary, always out of love for Algeria.