Algeria angrily closed the crossing point when Rabat imposed visa requirements on Algerians wishing to visit Morocco. The move followed the 1994 attack on a hotel in Marrakech in which two Spanish tourists were killed at the hands of alleged Islamist militants of Algerian origin. Algiers vehemently denied Rabat's charges that they had been sent by Algerian intelligence. The closing of the border has badly damaged the Moroccan economy, depriving it of up to two billion US dollars in cross-border trade and tourism by an estimated 1.5 million Algerians who flocked through the border towns annually. Many of these border towns such as Oujda, where Bouteflika himself was born 62 years ago, have been devastated by the closure with many businessmen going bankrupt after abysmal returns on investment in hotels, shops and small trading enterprises.
Algerian officials insist that the impact was less severe in their country.
However, many economists believe that reviving traffic along the long border would create tens of thousands of jobs in both countries where the rate of unemployment is nearing 20 per cent in Morocco and as high as 30 per cent in Algeria. During his one-man election campaign, which was boycotted by his six rival opposition leaders, Bouteflika said he had mixed feelings about the border. We know that the border has been used by some for drug trafficking and smuggling but many are suffering and we feel for them. Many feel that the climate for reopening the border will become more favourable in the months before the November AMU summit. Algerian diplomats who last week hosted a rare dinner reception for Moroccan journalists at the residence of their ambassador in Rabat appeared keen to give a positive message, stressing reconciliation and declining to discuss the issue that has for years poisoned relations between the two neighbours.