Algeria web action WA1504 original AI-index: MDE 28/006/2004

Closing text, 13 August 2004, MDE 28/009/2004

This action helped to raise awareness and mobilize international pressure on the removal of human remains from a mass grave site that was believed to contain mortal remains of individuals who “disappeared” following their abduction by state-armed militias in Algeria. It also contributed to protecting Algerian human rights defenders who work on this sensitive issue.

AI remains concerned that the Algerian government has taken no concrete steps to investigate the removal of human remains from the mass grave site in Sidi M’hammed Benaouda. The body parts found at such sites constitute vital evidence for investigations, which must be carried out into the thousands of “disappearances” and other crimes against humanity committed in Algeria during the last decade.

AI has repeatedly called for a full, independent commission of inquiry into the gross human rights abuses committed in Algeria since 1992 by armed groups, the security forces and state-armed militias. To date there has been almost no movement towards establishing the truth about these abuses and bringing those responsible to justice. Instead, the victims and their families are left without redress and the population without guarantees that the crimes against humanity they have witnessed in recent years will not be repeated.