The Massacres in Algeria, 1992-2004
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The Massacres in Algeria, 1992-2004 Extracts from a report presented by the Justice Commission for Algeria at the 32nd Session of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal on HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ALGERIA (1992-2004) 5 - 8 November 2004 Salima Mellah May 2004 The full report in French: http://www.algerie-tpp.org/tpp/pdf/dossier_2_massacres.pdf Table INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 4 I. THE MASSACRES IN TIME.................................................................................... 7 1992-1993: Targeted violence .............................................................................................. 7 1994-1995: Terror and horror settle in............................................................................... 9 The regular forces .............................................................................................................. 9 Death squads.................................................................................................................... 10 The Islamist armed groups ............................................................................................... 11 The anti-Islamist militias.................................................................................................. 13 1995-1996: The army gains the upper hand with the help from the GIA, and the massacres intensify ..................................................................................................................... 14 The ‘great massacres’ of the summer of 1997 .................................................................. 17 II. SURVIVORS’ TESTIMONIES .............................................................................. 20 The massacre of Ar-Raïs, 28 August 1997 ........................................................................ 21 Testimony or Mrs. Bachiri, survivor................................................................................. 21 Testimony of another witness........................................................................................... 22 Bentalha, 22 September 1997 ............................................................................................ 23 Bentalha, the tale of ten hours of killings ......................................................................... 23 Chronicle of an announced massacre................................................................................ 24 III. THE MASSACRES IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL EVENTS ............................ 26 1994: Zeroual, a ‘bound’ president................................................................................... 26 1996: “Eradicators” versus ‘Reconciliators’.................................................................... 28 1997: Preparations for the end of Zeroual........................................................................ 29 IV. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRES OF 1997-1998?.................. 31 Explanations from the various actors and observers ....................................................... 31 The GIA claims responsibility........................................................................................... 31 When intellectuals embrace the claims of generals .......................................................... 32 NGOs raise doubts as to the official version ..................................................................... 34 The military’s responsibility.............................................................................................. 35 Massacres as a tool of counter-insurrection?.................................................................... 37 2 Hypotheses for the massacres............................................................................................ 39 V. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS.............................................. 41 Common indignation and calls for action......................................................................... 41 The Algerian authorities launch an offensive ................................................................... 43 The diplomatic parade....................................................................................................... 45 Information mission by a UN delegation .......................................................................... 46 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 48 ANNEXES ................................................................................................................ 50 Annex 1.- Three testimonies of the 1994 massacres.......................................................... 50 Testimonies from citizens of Ténès (May 1994)............................................................... 50 Testimonies from citizens of Berrouaghia (18 June 1994) ................................................ 52 Testimonies from citizens of Lakhdaria (May 1994) ........................................................ 53 Annex 2.- (Non exhaustive) list of the massacres in 1997................................................. 55 Annex 3.- The scene of the Béni-Messous massacre, 5 September 1997.......................... 60 Annexe 4.- The scene of the Bentalha massacre, 22 September 1997 ....................................... 61 Annexe 5.- The scene of the Sidi-Hamed massacre, 11 January 1998 ............................. 62 Annex 6.- (non-exhaustive) list of the massacres in 2002 and 2003.................................. 63 2002................................................................................................................................. 63 2003................................................................................................................................. 64 3 Introduction It is not easy to deal with the subject of the massacres committed in Algeria. Everything is done to mask their full extent, to camouflage the exact circumstances in which they were committed, to cloud information relating to the identity of the attackers and their backers, in short, to avoid too much interest. However, cornered by the national and international public opinion in search of the truth, the ruling powers and their media connections disseminated a version which puts the blame for the massacres exclusively on Islamist “terrorism” – a term which often gets close to meaning Islamic – and which forbids any other interpretation, even considering those who ask questions and demand independent investigations as “terrorism’s henchmen”. The number of deaths has to this day always been the object of controversy. President Bouteflika, shortly after his coming to power in April 19991, put forward the figure of 100,000 victims of the Algerian tragedy since 1992. This was the first time an Algerian politician provided such a number. Until then, the death threshold remained officially under 26,000. In the beginning of 2004, General Rachid Laâli, head of the DDSE (Directorate for Documentation and External Security) for his part estimated that 48,000 people had been killed, among them 24,000 civilians, 9,500 soldiers and 15,300 ‘terrorists’2, whereas the MAOL (Algerian Movement of Free Officers) indicated already in May 1999 the figure of 173,000 killed. As for the national human rights organisations such as the LADDH, they estimate the number of victims to be over 200,000. Since the coup of January 1992, massacres have been perpetrated in Algeria. These killings assume different forms according to the goals pursued by the people behind them, who can also have diverse identities. Whereas in the first three years following the putsch of 11 January 1992 mostly ‘homicides’ were committed (meaning either extrajudicial executions by security forces or assassinations by Islamist armed groups), from around 1995 the term ‘massacre’ has been increasingly used by the Algerian media to characterise the killings. Although international public opinion was aware that the fight against terrorism carried out by the ruling powers was resulting in thousands of summary executions, the gradual semantic change towards the notion of massacre allowed responsibility to be imputed solely to armed groups. In fact, the term ‘massacres’, not linked to any precise legal concept, is used to strike minds with the brutality of the acts thus described, while at the same time covering them up : the crime is not qualified, the persons or groups involved therefore remain anonymous. The culprits are in turn confined in an opacity only intensified by the term ‘terrorist’. A triple denial follows: of the victims’ suffering, of the search for the truth in these crimes and of justice. Only when the horror of the massacres committed from the end of 1996 assumed an indescribable scope, questions relating to those responsible and their sponsors emerged in a pressing manner and the first elements of an answer appeared. But very quickly the Algerian regime succeeded in closing down the scope of the media scope by imposing Islamist terrorism as the only valid explanation, with the support of some Western media reluctant to investigate a complex situation and easily satisfied by a theory reinforcing their prejudices – a ‘theory’ horribly indifferent, as we shall see, to the real origin of a savagery based on an absolute contempt for human life. This theory has become all the more prevailing after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States as the threat of international Islamist