Abstract
Tahar Djaout, 39-year-old journalist, poet and novelist, was struck by three bullets on 26 May 1993. He died on 2 June. He was the founder and editor of the weekly Ruptures, an openly anti-Islamist publication. He is the author of several novels including Les chercheurs d'os (1984), L'invention du désert (1987) and Les vigiles (1991) for which he won the Prix Méditerranée. The following piece is the last he wrote. What can be expected from a dialogue between parties whose social programmes are light years apart? he asks, and attacks the High State Committee for its failure to determine a direction for Algeria