Algerians' call for rebellion

Paris (AP) - The second-in- command of Algeria's banned Muslim fundamentalist movement gave his backing to Islamic guerrillas and, from his prison cell, issued a call to the army to desert and the people to rise up.

'The struggle against this power backed by the military junta has become an imperative duty . . . and a legal duty,' said Ali Belhadj in an official communique issued yesterday by the Islamic Salvation Front.

In the two-page statement, dated 12 December and co- signed by the movement's spokesman Rabah Kebir, Belhadj called on the army, police, gendarmes and judges 'not to take the side of the junta against the disarmed Muslim people.' The 'junta' is the High State Committee installed by the army a year ago.