Document - Algeria: A human rights crisis

AI INDEX MDE 28/36/97

Algeria

a human rights crisis

CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN A SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE

Up to 80,000 people have been killed in Algeria in almost six years of conflict. This year alone, thousands of civilians have been massacred. A climate of fear has spread through the entire society as the civilian population has been drawn more and more into the conflict.

The massacres have taken place against a background of widespread human rights abuses by security forces, state-armed militias and by armed opposition groups, which call themselves “Islamic groups”. Political killings, “disappearances”, torture, secret detentions, abductions and death threats have become routine. With draconian restrictions imposed by the authorities on security-related information, there are no accurate figures on the victims and it is feared that the total number killed may be much higher.

The Algerian authorities blame all the massacres and killings on “terrorist groups”, but their security forces are also responsible for countless deaths. No investigations have been carried out into the massacres and other abuses.

MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS: NO ONE IS SPARED

In the past year ordinary civilians have been targeted in an unprecedented manner. Thousands of men, women, children and elderly people have been slaughtered, hacked to death, decapitated, mutilated, shot and burned alive in their homes; pregnant women disembowelled, children and babies thrown off balconies.

Most of the massacres have been committed around the capital in the Algiers, Blida and Medea regions — in the most heavily militarized part of the country. In many cases, massacres, often lasting several hours, took place only a few kilometres or even a few hundred metres away from army and security forces’ barracks and outposts. Yet no one intervened to stop the massacres or to arrest the perpetrators, who got away on each occasion.

The screams of the victims, the sound of gunshots and explosions, the flames and smoke of the burning houses were audible and visible from miles away. Why did no one come to the rescue of the victims?

Who is behind the killings? State negligence or complicity?

Survivors and neighbours tell of telephoning or running to nearby security posts seeking help, with the security forces there refusing to intervene, claiming that they were not mandated to do so. Survivors described how the army and security forces stood by while the villagers were being slaughtered and did not come into the village until after the attackers had left.

MASSACRES

Sidi Rais, south of Algiers 28 August 1997

Up to 300 people, many of them women and children, and even small babies, were killed and more than 100 injured. The massacre site is surrounded by army barracks and security forces posts, located between a few hundreds metres and a few kilometers away. Survivors said that security forces’ units were also stationed just outside the village, aware of the massacre being committed. Yet the security forces never intervened. One survivor said:

“The army and the security forces were right there; they heard and saw everything and did nothing, and they let the terrorists leave.... They waited for the terrorists to finish their dirty task and then they let them leave. What does this mean to you?”

Survivors emphasised how massacres occurred close to army barracks.

People banged on my door screaming. Frightened neighbours wanted to pass through my house to run to the army barrack, which is not far — about 100 metres — to alert the army and seek their protection.”

The authorities did not issue any information on the Sidi Rais massacre until late that afternoon, when they announced that 98 people had been killed and 120 injured.

Sidi Youssef / Beni Messous, Algiers,

5 September 1997

More than 60 men, women and children were massacred. Beni Messous has the largest barracks and military security centre of the capital, as well as several other gendarmerie and security forces centres from which the site of the massacre is clearly visible. The army barracks of Cheraga is only a few kilometres away. Neighbours telephoned the security forces who refused to intervene saying the matter was under the mandate of the gendarmerie. They called the gendarmerie but received no reply, and the attackers left undisturbed.

The authorities did not issue any details about the massacre at Sidi Youssef nor provide information on the number of fatalities.

Bentalha/ Baraki, south of Algiers,

22 September 1997

More than 200 men, women and children were massacred, right next to five different army and security forces outposts: Survivors say that as the massacre took place, armed forces units with armoured vehicles were stationed outside the village and stopped some of those trying to flee from getting out of the village. Journalists who interviewed survivors give similar reports. One survivor said:

“I don’t understand; the army was surrounding Bentalha but they did not intervene. It’s beyond comprehension. The massacre went on for several hours and then the terrorists left and no one stopped them; then the ambulances came in and cleared the bodies... Even talking about it is risky; my neighbour who lost all his family in the massacre was telling a journalist and a policeman told him to shut his mouth or else he’d see. Who can help us? No one cares.”

LACK OF PROTECTION

At the very least, the Algerian authorities are responsible and should account for the consistent failure to provide protection for the civilian population. It is clear that there has been a conscious abdication by the authorities of their responsibility to protect the civilian population in areas where security and communications networks are most developed.

Factual evidence about the massacres and survivors’ testimonies raise concerns that death squads working in collusion with, and under the protection of, certain units or factions of the army, security forces, and state-armed militias, may have been responsible for some of the massacres. Whether or not certain units of the army and security forces have been actively involved in the massacres, must be investigated, and the perpetrators and their accomplices must be brought to justice, whoever they may be.

KILLINGS BY THE SECURITY FORCES

Summary killings by the security forces seem to be increasingly used as an alternative to arrest or as a form of punishment.

Abdelhak Benhammouda, leader of the Algerian workers’ union, UGTA, was shot dead on 28 January 1997. On 12 February security forces killed 8 people, including 2 women and 2 small children and then announced that the assassins of Abdelhak Benahmmouda had been killed. Later, on 23 February, national television showed Rachid Medjahed, who had been arrested on 15 February, confessing to having been the leader of the group who killed Abdelhak Benhammounda. On 3 April Rachid Medjahed’s family found his body riddled with bullets in a morgue, but the Algerian authorities, including the Minister of Justice himself, kept insisting that Rachid Medjahed was alive. In May the authorities finally admitted that Rachid Medjahed was dead. They said he had died on 18 February from bullet wounds sustained at the time of arrest. Yet he did not look injured when he appeared on television on 23 February, and those who saw him in detention said that he had not been injured at the time of his arrest.

Were the government authorities hiding the truth when they claimed that Rachid Medjahed was alive several weeks after his death in police custody?

Or are the judicial authorities no longer able to supervise the security services?

Has the rule of law broken down to such an extent?

Why was the only person who could have clarified the murder of Abdelhak Benhammouda killed in police custody ?

Amnesty International has called for an independent and impartial inquiry into the killings of Abdelhak Benhammouda and Rachid Medjahed.

KILLING SUSPECTS AND RELATIVES

The security forces also kill civilian relatives of known or suspected members of armed groups.

On 10 May 1996 an 84-year-old man and four of his sons, aged between 46 and 23, were killed in their home in front of their family. The men’s mother said:

“four armed men came to the house...wearing balaclavas....my oldest son went to open the door... They took my four sons and made them lie face down and shot all four of them in the back of the head and killed them. My husband panicked and started to scream and they shot him in the face and killed him.... A car was waiting outside and the driver was not hooded and we recognized him; he is from the security services... Another of my sons was a terrorist and he was killed over a year ago, but my other children and my husband had nothing to do with it....”

KILLINGS OF CIVILIANS BY ARMED GROUPS

Targeting the vulnerable

Armed groups which call themselves “Islamic” groups have killed civilians, in both targeted and random attacks, issued death threats and subjected their victims to rape and other forms of torture.

Whilst in the first year of the conflict these groups attacked mainly military and security forces’ members, since 1993 they have increasingly targeted civilians from all walks of life. They have killed men and women whom they regarded as supporters of the authorities, relatives of members of the security forces, those who refused to join or support them or who opposed their political agenda, people in certain professional categories, youths who completed compulsory military service, and people whose lifestyle they considered as “un-Islamic” or “immoral”.

Killings by armed group have often been particularly brutal; men, women and children have been slaughtered, decapitated and mutilated, often in front of their families, including children.

Two sisters, aged 11 and 13, spoke of the horror of the night when their parents were killed:

“We woke up at the noise; some armed men were hitting father with a shotgun... They pushed father into the kitchen and the others took mum out into the courtyard and tied her hands. They cut her throat. The other men called from inside the house and the one who slaughtered mum shouted: ‘Wait, I’m finishing’. We pulled mum into the house and closed her eyes and covered her with a blanket, and also covered father; he had also had his throat cut. We cried and screamed”.

Their father had previously received death threats and had escaped an assassination attempt four months earlier.

DEATH THREATS OFTEN FOLLOWED BY MURDERS

Killings have often followed death threats by armed groups such as the GIA. They have targeted individuals or groups like civil servants, wives and relatives of the security forces, journalists, newspaper and cigarette vendors, hairdressers and beauticians, and many others. The threats are issued in communiqués to the media, public notices, telephone calls or letters. A woman teacher of physical education told Amnesty International:

“In 1993 they killed my father; he was a gendarme, and had been sentenced to death by the terrorists. Then I began to receive death threats... one day I found an envelope outside the door of the house; in it was a piece of soap and a piece of white material [symbolizing soap to wash the dead and the burial shroud]; I got too frightened and decided to leave...”.

Journalists are among those who often received death threats. In May 1995, after meeting Amnesty International delegates, Mohamed Abderrahmani, editor of the pro-government daily El Moudjahid said:

I hope I will see you again, you never know if I will be alive tomorrow”.

The next morning he was assassinated in his car as he drove his children to school.

INDISCRIMINATE BOMB ATTACKS IN PUBLIC PLACES

Scores of civilians have been killed and hundreds injured in bomb attacks by armed groups. Whether the bombs were planted near police stations or in markets, cafés, near schools, on railway lines, and other public places — the victims have mostly been civilians.

“DISAPPEARANCES” AND SECRET DETENTIONS

Hundreds of people have “disappeared” after been arrested by security forces, often in their homes in front of their families. For years families have been contacting the authorities seeking information on the whereabouts of their loved ones - but to no avail. Since 1993, and especially since 1994, Amnesty International has obtained and documented evidence of hundreds of cases of “disappearances”; however, according to information received from different sources and reports, the number of “disappeared” may be as high as 2,000.

“WHERE IS MY SON?”

“I just want to know where is my son; if he is dead or alive; if they have anything against him let them bring him to justice, but tell us where he is”.

This is what families of the “disappeared” keep repeating. By making people “disappear” the whole family is punished.

The authorities deny all knowledge of the “disappeared”, but when pressed by the international community they sometimes blame the “disappearance” on armed opposition groups, or they say that the “disappeared” was a “terrorist” killed in a shootout with security forces, even though the “disappeared” were arrested by security forces in front of their families or other witnesses.

Djamaleddine FAHASSI, a radio journalist, married and father of a little girl, was arrested near his home in the district of El Harrache in the capital on 6 May 1995 and “disappeared”. All efforts by his family to find him have been in vain.

Mokhtar YOUSSFI, a 40-year-old man, married with two children, was arrested at his home in Ain el-Turk (Oran) on 2 November 1994. All efforts made by his family to find out where he was detained were in vain. In October 1996 the authorities said that he had been killed in a shoot-out “between security forces and his terrorist group” on 3 November 1994. Yet the authorities never informed his family of his death.

Messaoud OUZIALA, a kidney-transplant surgeon working in a hospital in the capital, was abducted as he was driving home on 8 July 1997. The security forces refused to register a complaint about his “disappearance” and Algerian newspapers refused to publish anything about his abduction. He was finally released on 22 July after 15 days secret detention.

Rachid MESLI, a human rights lawyer, was abducted by armed men as he was driving in a country road near his home outside Algiers on 31 July 1996. Those who abducted him forced his five-year-old son and his brother-in-law to look away as they forced him into a car and took him away. Ten days later the authorities admitted he had been arrested by security forces.

Security forces never present arrest warrants when arresting suspects, and often behave in the same way as armed groups do when they abduct people.

TORTURE OF DETAINEES BY SECURITY FORCES

Torture has been widespread since 1992. Thousands of detainees have complained that they were tortured, but to date not a single case of torture has been investigated and no members of the security forces are known to have been brought to justice for torturing detainees. The methods of torture are varied. The most common is the chiffon (the cloth), whereby the detainee is tied to a bench, a cloth is stuffed into his mouth and large quantities of dirty water mixed with chemicals is poured into his mouth, causing near-suffocation and swelling of the stomach. Other common methods include the chalumeau (blowtorch), used to burn the face and other parts of the detainee’s body; electric shocks to testicles, earlobes and other sensitive parts of the body; mock executions and beatings.

TORTURE OF CAPTIVES BY ARMED GROUPS

Scores of women have been abducted by armed groups, especially in rural areas, and held captive in hiding places where they were ill-treated and raped. Women have also been subjected to beatings and death threats and been forced to cook and carry out chores. Sometimes women have been raped by more than one member of the group and some women have been killed for trying to escape or for refusing to carry out tasks. Many families who live in rural areas have sent their daughters to relatives in towns for fear that they may be abducted and raped by armed groups.

PRIVATIZING THE CONFLICT: THE MILITIAS

For years the government has claimed that “the security situation is under control” but at the same time it has been handing out weapons to civilians and encouraged them to set up militias. These are called “patriots” or “self-defence groups”. Since 1995 state TV has run advertising spots encouraging and praising their activities.

In some areas militias have virtually replaced the security forces, setting up road blocks and organising ambushes and “anti-terrorist” operations on their own or with the army and security forces. Some wear official military uniforms and use security forces vehicles and equipment. Militia members have described on TV, to the press and to AI, their ambushes, their determination to kill as many “terrorists” as possible and to “clean-up” areas. They have stated they take no prisoners because “terrorists” do not deserve to live.

A member of a militia group said: “....if the terrorists kill one of my relatives, I will kill their entire family...”

THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

The international community has for years shunned its responsibilities in the face of the human rights crisis in Algeria.

The double-standard approach of the international community is blatantly obvious when noting the treatment of Algerian asylum-seekers: After the killing of some 100 foreigners in Algeria and the death threats by the GIA against foreigners, most western governments took far-reaching measures to protect their embassies in Algeria and advised their citizens not to travel to Algeria. Yet, these same governments often refused asylum to Algerians fleeing death in their country.

If a few foreigners, usually living in much safer conditions than Algerians, are not safe, how can it be argued that Algerians — who are the overwhelming majority of the victims — are not at risk ? Don’t western governments attach the same value to the life of Algerians as they do to the lives of their own nationals?

TIME FOR ACTION: AN INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION

For years the cries for help of victims in Algeria and the efforts of human rights organizations to draw attention to the human rights crisis in Algeria have received little or no response. This indifference must not continue.

Amnesty International is calling for an international investigation into the recent massacres and other human rights abuses to establish facts, examine allegations of responsibility, and make recommendations on steps to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice.

CAPTIONS

Women of Rais, after the massacre 29 August 1997,