Report on in Amenas: Inquest Cover-Up and Western Involvement in Algerian State Crimes Jeremy Keenan
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REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 0 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES Jeremy Keenan is Visiting Professor, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He began his research in the Sahara in 1964. Copyright © 2016 Jeremy Keenan - All rights reserved and permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication Please contact Jeremy Keenan for permissions or press enquiries - [email protected] ISBN: 978-0-9934574-2-5 (Paperback) and 978-0-9934574-3-2 (eBook-PDF) Published by: International State Crime Initiative Queen Mary University of London, School of Law Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom www.statecrime.org The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) is a cross-disciplinary research centre. Our staff team incorporates backgrounds in law, criminology, and the social sciences. We aim to introduce new perspectives to the field of human rights research, which has traditionally been focussed on legal theory and mechanisms, but today exists as an intersection of academic fields. 1 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 2 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 3 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 4 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 5 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 0.0. Acknowledgements A coroner, who requested anonymity, said to me: “My job is to give a voice to those who have died and to ensure their interests are protected.” An inquest is the arena in which that ideal can be achieved. The In Amenas inquest went some way in that direction. This Report was not written at anyone’s request or suggestion. No funding was applied for, nor has any been received. This Report was written to reveal wider ‘truths’, which, for various reasons, did not come to light during the inquest. The social anthropologist has a responsibility to bear witness; the academic has a responsibility to publish. It has been written with sincere respect for the seven people for whom the inquest was held, as well the other expatriates and Algerians (mostly security personnel) who lost their lives at In Amenas in January 2013. It is also written with respect for their surviving families, friends and colleagues, many of whom have been in contact with me. I would like to thank them for their insights and their concerns, which they expressed to me, about what happened at In Amenas. Their confidentiality has been respected. I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and its Director, Professor Penny Green, for publishing the Report, as well as her colleagues at ISCI, namely Fatima Kanji and Thomas MacManus. Without their encouragement, the Report might well have foundered along the way. I would 6 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES like to express my appreciation to Dr Penny Nicholls for her editing and proof- reading of early drafts. I would also like to thank Dr Louise Wise for overseeing much of the final publication. In particular, I would like to thank the ISCI Interns, Cara Priestley and Lilly Glucksmann Cheslaw for their invaluable and painstaking work in the final editing, proofreading and formatting of the Report, and taking it to publication. I would like to express my appreciation to the courtesy extended to me throughout the long duration of the inquest court hearings by the court officials, notably those from the West Sussex Coroner’s Office. The inquest transcripts and a witness list can be accessed at: https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/births-marriages-and-deaths/deaths/in- amenas-inquest-hearing-transcripts/. Illustrations and photographs. Most of the photographs were taken by the author (unless otherwise stated). Acknowledgment and thanks are also given to Menas Associates, Al Jazeera, various Algerian media services, the press office of the French defence ministry, other French media services, Statoil and Judge Nicholas Hilliard for their for their help in providing photographs. Some photographs were found online where they are widely distributed and available and no source could be identified. 7 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES 0.1. Executive Summary In the morning of 16 January 2013, some 32 terrorists attacked the Tiguentourine gas plant in Algeria’s Sahara Desert. Tiguentourine is located in the Algerian province of Illizi, approximately 50 kms Libyan side of the border, adjacent to In SW of the town of In Amenas (c.8,000) Amenas and 78 kms from the Libya border. Author’s own Tiguentourine started production in 2006 and, at the time of the attack, was producing approximately 12% of Algeria’s natural gas output. The plant is operated by Algeria’s national oil company, Sonatrach (51%), BP (24.5%) and Statoil (24.5%) in a production- sharing contract known as the ‘In Amenas Gas Project Joint Venture,’ or JV. At the time of the attack, there were over 800 employees working within the facility. Of these, 130 were non-Algerians, expatriates from almost 30 countries. The others were Algerians. By the time the Algerian army had reclaimed the site on 19 January some 80 people had died. 39 of these were foreign nationals. They included Japan (10), Philippines (8), UK (6), Norway (5), US (3), Romania (2), Malaysia (2) France (1) and Colombia (1). 29 of the 32 terrorists were killed. 9 or 10 Algerians, including one Algerian guard, were also reportedly killed. The bodies of six British nationals (Garry Barlow, Carson Bilsland, Stephen Green, Sebastian John, Paul Morgan, Kenneth Whiteside) and one British 8 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES resident (Carlos Estrada Valencia) were repatriated to Gatwick airport and came under the jurisdiction of the Senior Coroner for West Sussex. The inquest into their deaths began in Court 73 of London’s Royal Courts of Justice on 15 September 2014 and was concluded on 26 February 2015. HM Assistant Coroner for West Sussex, His Honour Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, conducted the inquest. The attack on In Amenas began at 05.47 on 16 January when a bus carrying some 12 staff to In Amenas town and airport, escorted by 3 or 4 gendarmes vehicles, each carrying 4 armed gendarmes, came under fire as it was passing through the external vehicle checkpoint (VCP1). Paul Morgan, the Operations Liaison (security) Supervisor, who was returning to the UK that day, was in the second lead vehicle (in front of the bus) and the first to be killed. In a firefight that lasted at least 45 minutes, the gendarmes, reinforced by colleagues, successfully defended the bus, none of whose occupants were killed or taken hostage. Shooting in the vicinity of the bus ended around 07.00, at about the same time as the military arrived on the scene and began to surround the complex. Having failed to capture the bus and take hostages, the terrorists moved into the facility, entering both the Base de Vie (BdV) and the Central (gas) Processing Facility (CPF) complexes, which were 3 kms apart, in search of foreign (i.e. non Algerian) hostages. Many of the foreign national hostages, including Stephen Green, Kenneth Whiteside, Carson Bilsland, Sebastian John and Carlos Estrada Valencia, were 9 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES killed on the second day of the siege when the Algerian army fired on a convoy of six vehicles in which the terrorists were trying to move themselves and their hostages from the BdV to the CPF. Many of the remaining hostages killed, including Garry Barlow, died on the third day of the siege when the terrorists in the CPF detonated a bomb. The Algerian army made its final assault to clear the CPF on the morning of 19 January. Throughout the 4-day siege, the Algerian army, under the command of Algeria’s secret intelligence service, the Département du renseignement et de la sécurité (DRS), made no attempt to negotiate the safety and release of the hostages, as is recognised international procedure in the case of such hostage seizures. Rather, it launched an assault on the terrorists, killing most of them, along with most of their hostages. During the 20 months between the end of the siege and the opening of the London inquest, there was absolutely no cooperation from the Algerian authorities. The Algerians said this was because they were preparing to hold their own judicial inquiry. Three and a half years later, there has been no enquiry. Nor is there likely to be. The reason for this is because the Algerian authorities, in the form of the DRS, were almost certainly complicit in the In Amenas attack. Evidence provided in this report strongly suggests that the attack was a false-flag operation organised by the DRS that went drastically wrong. This report provides evidence to show that the US, UK and French authorities had long been aware of the DRS’s infiltration of terrorist groups and its subsequent working relationship with them, especially in false flag operations designed to further US and other Western interests in the global war on terror 10 REPORT ON IN AMENAS: INQUEST COVER-UP AND JEREMY KEENAN WESTERN INVOLVEMENT IN ALGERIAN STATE CRIMES (GWOT).