The escalating violence and extremism, which had been provoked by the military's cancellation of the legislative elections in 1991 that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), an Islamist party, were expected to win, compelled the major political parties to unite under the auspices of the Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome.
The community had previously played an important role in the drafting of the Rome General Peace Accords in 1992 which ended the civil war in Mozambique.
[2] At the end of the negotiation period, a joint statement released by the parties in which they rejected violence to achieve political goals and called for respect of human rights and democracy.
[3] The final version of the platform included demands for the reinstatement of democracy through the holding of new parliamentary elections and the repeal of the dissolution of the FIS, independent investigations of human rights abuses following the coup d'état, the withdrawal of the Algerian army from the political sphere, and a renewed commitment to the Constitution.
The Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) called the platform as a diversion, while the increasingly radicalized Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA) presented three ultimatums including punishment of secularist Algerian generals, the banning of the communist and atheist political parties and the liberation of important Islamist leaders, including Abdelhak Layada, from prison.