Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/algeria.txt

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TITLE:  ALGERIA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995


                            ALGERIA


The 1989 Constitution was to have provided for Algeria's
transition from a one-party Socialist state to a multiparty
parliamentary system.  However, political power remains in the
hands of the military leadership and officials of the former
ruling party.  The experiment in democratization came to a halt
in 1992 when the regime canceled the second round of
legislative elections, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS),
a party which seeks to transform Algeria into an Islamic state,
was poised to win.  Subsequently, the regime imposed a state of
emergency, banned the FIS as a legal organization, jailed most
of its leaders, and created a five-man High State Committee to
serve as Algeria's collective presidency.

In January 1994, the regime replaced the High State Committee
with a former general, Liamine Zeroual, who assumed the
presidency of a "transitional" government.  President Zeroual,
asserting that the country's crisis should be resolved through
dialog, made some attempts to consult with legal political
parties and opened informal contacts with imprisoned FIS
leaders.  However, the FIS and other major parties dismissed
his overtures as disingenuous and demanded that the Government
undertake certain actions, such as releasing FIS leaders,
lifting the state of emergency, and giving the political
parties a role in the transitional period leading to new
elections.  In a speech on November 1, Zeroual declared that
dialog had failed and announced his intention to hold
presidential elections in 1995.  Also in November, the major
opposition parties met in Rome to develop a common platform for
renewed negotiations with the Government, which strongly
protested that meeting.

Armed Islamist groups steadily intensified their campaign to
overthrow the Government.  Guerrillas mounted daily attacks on
security personnel and established strongholds in certain
Algiers neighborhoods and other parts of the country.  Militant
Islamist groups with more radical agendas than the FIS have
steadily become more active in the insurgency.  A climate of
fear and intimidation deepened as extremists assassinated
dozens of political figures, journalists, academics, and
thousands of other civilians, as well as over 78 foreigners.
Reprisals by the regime's forces have grown bloodier.  The
Government estimated that 10,000 people had been killed by the
end of 1993.  The figure for 1994 has not been officially
released but most sources estimate that it will be twice as
high.

The State's security apparatus includes the police, the
gendarmerie, and the army, all of which are involved in efforts
to repress the Islamist insurgency and combat terrorism.  They
were responsible for numerous human rights abuses.

Civil strife has devastated the economy, aggravating the
longstanding problems of unemployment, inflation, housing
shortages, scarcity of foreign exchange, and the legacy of
years of inefficient state planning.  Economic pressures and an
inability to make service payments on its foreign debt prompted
the Government in April to sign an agreement with the
International Monetary Fund and to begin implementing market
reforms.  Nonetheless, conditions for ordinary Algerians only
worsened in 1994.

Respect for human rights and the rule of law continued to
deteriorate in an increasingly tense environment.  Abuses by
all sides multiplied.  Using emergency law powers, the
Government continued to detain, in many cases without due
process, hundreds of people suspected of Islamist activities or
sympathies.  Special antiterrorist courts, created under the
state of emergency, handed down death sentences in trials which
were unfair according to international standards.  There is
convincing evidence that the security forces carried out
hundreds of extrajudicial killings, mostly in retaliation for
previous attacks by armed groups, and often tortured and
otherwise abused detainees.  The Government continued to
restrict the freedoms of assembly, religion, and the press and
to discriminate against women.  Domestic violence against women
remains a serious problem.

Armed groups, many of which claim to have Islamist objectives,
also committed escalating abuses and atrocities.  Terrorists,
often disguised in uniforms of the security forces, killed
hundreds of civilians.  Some armed groups carried out a
campaign of violent intimidation aimed at closing down schools
and other public institutions.  As law and order broke down,
anti-Islamist vigilante groups engaged in reprisal killings of
Islamists and their sympathizers.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

There is credible evidence that security forces committed
politically motivated extrajucial killings.  Despite President
Zeroual's assurances to the contrary, there was no evidence
that the authorities investigated such killings.  The National
Observatory for Human Rights (ONDH), a government body,
maintained that it provided the Ministry of Justice with
information on 12 cases of suspected extrajudicial killings.
In September a group of Islamists sent an open letter to
President Zeroual citing 36 cases of summary executions in 1994.

The Government maintains that the security forces resort to
lethal force only in the context of armed clashes with
terrorists.  Nonetheless, security forces are believed to have
carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings, mostly in
retaliation for previous attacks by armed groups.  Many victims
were reportedly killed by security forces wearing civilian
clothes or covering their heads with hoods.  The security
forces reportedly killed victims during curfew hours, at or
near the victims' homes, or in the presence of the victims'
family and friends.  The bodies of some victims were reportedly
discovered clothed in pajamas, indicating that they had been
killed after they were taken from their homes.  Security forces
allegedly killed other persons after they were taken into
police custody.

Security forces were implicated in the deaths of nine students
and their teacher from the El Oued area--Dahab Omar, Derouiche
Abdel Bassat, Rahal Abderrazak, Mahadda Salah, Aouniet
Abdelkader, Djerad Abdelkader, Arhouma Saad, Maatallah
Abdelbaki, Nazli Abdelkamel, and Kouider Messaoud, who were
arrested on March 12.  The police maintained that the men were
arrested to verify their military service status.  On April 13,
the police informed a relative of one detainee that the 10 men
had been released on April 8, but that they were immediately
killed by unknown "terrorists" after release.  The Government
has not provided an adequate explanation of the deaths.

On March 19, the body of Kouider Melal was found in the street
near his home in El Ataf, Ouedfoda, alongside the bodies of
three men from the same district.  Melal had been previously
seen in police custody 2 weeks before his death.

In addition to reports of extrajudicial killings outside
detention facilities, Islamists and human rights activists
accused the security forces of causing the unlawful deaths of
many detainees who succumbed to torture while in custody.

Armed groups, most notably the Armed Islamic Group (GIA),
killed hundreds of persons, including members of the security
forces and ordinary citizens.  Terrorists attacked civilians
whom they regarded as instruments of the State or whose
lifestyles they considered in conflict with Islamic values.

Victims included politicians, teachers, tax collectors,
hairdressers and beauticians, entertainers, veterans of the war
of independence, government-appointed Islamic preachers,
lawyers and magistrates who work with the Special Courts, women
who refused to veil themselves, industrialists, journalists and
intellectuals, and foreigners.  Many victims had their throats
cut or their bodies were mutilated after death.  Often the
victims' severed heads would be discovered in one location and
the bodies in another.  According to a February press account,
suspected terrorists kidnapped and killed a 14-year-old boy
from Medea, purportedly because he had befriended several
police officers.  His body was found hanging from a street
sign.  His head was found in a nearby town.

Armed groups killed at least 18 Algerian journalists and 10
lawyers.  On November 30, gunmen forced two reporters from
their homes and shot and decapitated them.  One of the victims
worked for the state television company, the other for a
state-owned newspaper.  Throughout the year, the GIA issued
death threats to journalists, foreigners, and others.  Many
journalists fled abroad because of threats to their lives.  In
October independent newspapers suspended publication for 3 days
to protest the killings of journalists.

Armed groups killed the national secretary for the country's
major labor union, the Union Generale des Travailleurs
Algeriens (UGTA); the president and vice president of Islah Wa
El-Irchad, the largest private charitable organization; the
rector of the Houari Boumediene University of Science and
Technology; the president of the Algerian League for Human
Rights; the chaiman of the Agronomy Institute at the University
of Blida; a professor of economics at the University of Oran;
the director of the School of Fine Arts in Algeria; a famous
playwright/actor; the director of the National Institute of
Islamic Studies in Batna; a popular singer; a leading sports
personality; and the husband of the Government's former
spokeswoman.

In October 1993, the GIA announced that foreign residents
should depart Algeria or face death.  Since then, terrorist
groups have killed at least 90 foreigners, including more than
78 in 1994.  Foreign victims included members of the clergy,
businesspeople, diplomats, and longtime residents of Algeria.
Victims were citizens of a number of European and other foreign
countries, although French citizens were the primary targets.

In addition to targeted killings, terrorist groups also
resorted to indiscriminate violence.  In June two grenades were
thrown at demonstrators at an Algiers march organized by the
Movement for Berber Culture, an anti-Islamist group.  The
grenades and the return fire from the police wounded 64
persons; 2 died later.  Armed Islamist groups used car bombs on
numerous occasions, killing many passersby.  In July, five
French Embassy personnel were killed by terrorists attempting
to place a car bomb inside an Embassy residential compound.

Armed anti-Islamist groups, such as the Organization of Young
Free Algerians (OJAL)---widely suspected as a front for
elements of the regime's security forces---carried out
reprisals against terrorist groups.  Such groups are reportedly
active in the Berber region of Kabylie.  In March
anti-Islamists likely killed two veiled high school students at
a bus stop in an Algiers suburb.  The killings may have been in
reprisal for the killing a month earlier of a 17-year-old high
school girl who declined to wear a head scarf.  In April the
OJAL issued a threat to kill 20 women wearing a head scarf or
20 bearded men for every woman killed by Islamic terrorists for
not wearing a head scarf.

There were many reports of reprisals by vigilante groups for
the deaths of military personnel.  Vigilantes may have killed 9
persons whose bodies were found on a street near an Algiers
bread shop on April 12.  The killings may have been committed
in revenge for the murder a day earlier of an army colonel near
the same bread shop.  In September an anti-Islamist group
killed as many as 90 people in Annaba, apparently in
retaliation for the earlier terrorist murder of a gendarmerie
captain and his daughter.  The Government has failed to condemn
the violence by anti-Islamist groups.

     b.  Disappearance

The ONDH claimed it had documented 116 cases of disappearances
believed to have been caused by security force personnel.  Each
of these cases was submitted to the Ministry of Justice or the
Ministry of Interior.  In some cases, the Government responded
to the ONDH queries but did not respond in others.

Armed Islamic groups also kidnaped civilians.  Sometimes the
bodies were found later, but often the victims disappeared and
their families have no information on their whereabouts.

     c.  Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

Knowledgeable sources, including Amnesty International (AI) and
all three major Algerian human rights organizations---ONDH,
LADH, and LADDH---reported that the security forces frequently
used torture on detainees, especially suspected Islamists, to
extract confessions or to obtain knowledge about the activities
of terrorist groups.  The Government denies that torture is a
matter of policy or accepted practice, but it states that
"excesses" may be committed by individual security officials.
The Government has failed to condemn publicly the use of
torture or to investigate allegations seriously.  This creates
a climate of impunity which encourages the continued use of
torture.

The ONDH maintains that some alleged torture victims decline to
press charges for fear of reprisal by the security forces.
ONDH claimed that it submitted several torture cases to the
Ministry of Justice but did not receive any indication that the
allegations were investigated.  In a statement published in the
London newspaper Al-Hayat on September 28, the FIS cited three
alleged cases of torture by policy.  It reported a claim by
Professor M. Moulay, who had headed a FIS delegation which
negotiated with the army early in the crisis, of having been
tortured in the Chatou Neuf police center during a 30-day
detention.  It stated that the Algiers police tortured Dr.
Lamdjadani, a Health Ministry official, during a 60-day
detention.  Lastly, it cited the death in custody of Professor
Bouchlagum, whose family had been informed that he was
transferred to the Chatou Neuf station but then discovered that
his body was in a morgue in Algiers.

A commonly reported torture method is the use of the "chiffon,"
a cloth stuffed into the victims mouth and saturated with dirty
water.  Other torture techniques reportedly include electric
shocks, beatings, the pulling out fingernails, burning with
cigarettes or a blowtorch, and the insertion of objects into
the anus.

The Government does not permit independent monitoring of
prisons or detention centers by such humanitarian organizations
as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
although it did allow representatives of AI to visit the
country in 1994.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention.  It
stipulates that incommunicado detention in criminal cases prior
to arraignment may not exceed 48 hours, after which the suspect
must be charged or released.  However, under the state of
emergency, the security forces have arrested and detained
thousands of persons.  According to the Antiterrorist Decree of
1992, the police may not hold a detainee in prearraignment
detention for more than 12 days and detainees must be informed
of charges against them.  In practice, the security forces
routinely exceed the lawful detention limit.

When making arrests, the security forces do not obtain warrants
and allegedly often refuse to identify themselves or to provide
detainees' relatives and lawyers with information about their
whereabouts or well-being.

In September security forces arrested Farid Khellil, the son of
a defense lawyer, for subversive activities.  The Bar
Association accused the Government of holding the son as a
hostage to intimidate his father.  The police granted a
provisional release to Khellil after 6 weeks without charging
him with any specific wrongdoing.

Under the state of emergency, the Minister of Interior is
authorized to detain suspects in special camps administered by
the army.  The Government stated that it intends to close these
camps.  By year's end, some 350 to 600 detainees were held
without charge at a camp in Ain M'guel.

Exile is not a legal form of punishment and is not known to be
practiced.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

The judiciary is composed of the civil courts, which try
misdemeanors and felonies; the military courts, which in the
past had tried civilians for terrorism offenses; and three
Special Courts established in 1992 to try terrorism cases.  The
President appoints civilian judges on recommendations from the
Higher Magistrate's Council, composed of the President, the
Minister of Justice, and various members of the judiciary.

Defendants are granted due process in the civilian courts.
They have the right to legal counsel, are entitled to be
advised of the charges against them, have the right to confront
their accusers, may appeal the verdict, and trials are public.
Islamic Shari'a law provides much of the basis for civil court
rulings in social matters involving family and personal
status.  The law requires that the Government provide lawyers
for the indigent.

Under the state of emergency, military courts are authorized to
try civilian defendants accused of terrorism.  Although there
were no known military trials of civilians during the year,
such trials took place in 1993.

The 1992 Antiterrorist Decree established three Special Courts,
each composed of three civilian judges, to try persons accused
of terrorist offenses.  Since February 1993, these courts have
tried more than 10,000 persons, of whom 1,100 were sentenced to
death, 6,500 imprisoned, and 2,500 acquitted.  Executions were
suspended in 1993, although 26 persons condemned by the Special
Courts were executed before the suspension order.

Defendants in the Special Courts do not receive due process.
The charge of terrorism is defined so vaguely that it often
includes the non-violent exercise of speech.  The judges do not
reveal their identities nor exercise independence from
executive authority.  They often restrict the number of
observers at the trials and fail to order investigations of
torture, even after defendants have appeared in court with
marks and bruises.  Judges allow the introduction of
confessions allegedly extracted by torture and may suspend
defense lawyers who use "obstructive methods" for 1 year.
Defense lawyers must receive authorization to represent their
clients in the Special Courts.  State prosecutors have
arbitrarily transferred to the Special Courts cases already
assigned to the regular courts.  Although defendants may appeal
verdicts handed down by the Special Courts, the Supreme Court
has rejected most appeals without consideration and has not
overturned any death sentence.

The Government announced in December that , as part of its
review of the Penal Code, it was considering closing the
Special Courts and tranferring jurisdiction for cases involving
acts of terrorism to the regular court system.

Between 350 and 600 detainees at the Ain M'guel detention camp
may be considered political prisoners.  Most were arrested in
1992 for alleged "subversive" activities.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

Although the Constitution provides for the inviolability of the
home, the state of emergency authorizes regional governors to
issue exceptional search warrants at any time.  Security forces
often enter residences illegally.  The Government fails to
ensure that the police adhere to lawful procedures for entering
houses or monitoring correspondence.  In addition, there were
increasingly frequent incidents of entry into private homes by
armed opposition elements, either to kidnap residents or to
steal weapons or valuables.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

The state of emergency and the Antiterrorist Decree of December
1992 gave the regime broad authority to restrict this freedom
and to take legal action against anyone whose speech is
considered a threat to the State or public order.  Fear of
arrest deters many journalists from reporting on internal
security developments or the Islamist movement.  In June an
interministerial directive required newspapers to submit for
review all news reports on the internal security situation.
The editor of El Moudjahid El Ousboui, an Arabic-language
weekly, was arrested and detained for 1 week in October for
publishing an article "Breaching National Security."

Shortly after the Minister of Communications warned editors in
November to respect "professional ethics," the regime suspended
several newspapers.  Editors were not given specific reasons
for the closures, beyond vague accusations of undermining
public order or publishing subversive information.  The FLN
newspaper El Hiwar was suspended for 6 months, the
French-language El Oumma and the Arabic weekly El Wadj El Akhar
for a month, and El Watan for 2 weeks.  The Government
suspended Le Libre indefinitely and placed the editor and two
staff members under judicial control.  On December 18, the
regime shut down L'Opinion for 40 days for publishing a draft
electoral law.

The Government further controls the press through its effective
monopoly on newsprint, printing presses, and the distribution
network.  Several newspapers ceased appearing for financial
reasons, which they blamed on the government monopolies.

The Government continues to curtail the public expression of
views supportive of the FIS.  Two FIS publications banned in
1992 remain suspended.  However, communiques and bulletins from
various Islamist organizations, such as the GIA or AIS (Islamic
Salvation Army), circulated clandestinely, and some mosques
periodically transmitted pro-FIS messages.  The Algerian press
reported FIS-related news only after the Government releases
news items (as in a series of letters from FIS leaders to the
regime); when the news protrayed the authorities gaining the
upper hand (as in the deaths of GIA leaders); or, in selected
cases, when the news had already appeared in print abroad.

The press continued to report opinions contrary to those of the
Government, including criticism of the Government's political,
economic, and social policies.  Commentary on the institution
of the military was usually self-censored, but at least one
leading French language newspaper carried several strongly
worded editorials without reprisal.

Radio and television remained under government control, with
coverage biased in favor of the government's policies.  During
attempts at a political dialogue in the fall, the legal
opposition political parties were invited to present their
views on television.  Many expressed harsh criticism of the
Government.  Because of the widespread accessibility of
satellite dish antennas, millions of citizens have access to
European broadcasts.

A brutal terrorist campaign against journalists and academics
seriously constrained freedom of speech and press.  Assailants
murdered 18 journalists in 1994.  In January the GIA issued a
specific threat against all journalists and in August stated
that it had a list of journalists to kill.  Newspapers
estimated that 200 journalists had relocated abroad.  Terrorism
targeting intellectuals and university educators prompted many
to flee to neighboring countries.  Gunman killed the rector of
the Houari Boumediene University of Science and Technology on
May 31, the Director of the Institute of Agronomy at the
University of Blida on August 6, and a Professor of Economics
at the University of Oran on September 26.  As a consequence,
few academic seminars and colloquia took place in 1994.

Terrorists also targeted primary and secondary schools.  The
Minister of Education stated that 610 schools had been burned
between June and October.

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Using emergency laws, the Government sharply curtails freedom
of assembly, although the 1989 Constitution provides for the
rights of assembly and association.   Citizens and
organizations must obtain a permit from the local governor's
office before staging demonstrations.  Such permits are
generally granted, after referral to the Ministry of Interior,
for demonstrations against Islamist terrorism or in favor of
the Government.  The regime does not require legal opposition
parties to obtain permits to hold internal meetings.

The regime allowed Berber organizations to hold demonstrations
as long as they took place in the Berber Kabylie region.
However, it denied permission for 2 rallies sponsored by the
The Berber Rights Movement (MCB) in the Algiers area.
Nevertheless, the MCB demonstrated repeatedly in Kabylie for
the teaching of the Berber language in the primary and
secondary schools.

The Ministry of Interior must approve all nongovernmental
associations.  The Government regards all associations as
illegal unless they are licensed.  It may deny a license to or
disolve any group regarded as a threat to the existing
political order.  In 1992 the regime dissolved the Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) as a political party as well as Islamic
social and charitable groups associated with the FIS.
Membership in the FIS is illegal.  However, the Government
itself has continued to meet periodically with detained FIS
leaders Abbasi Medani and Ali Belhadj.

According to a 1989 law, all citizens may join political
organizations, except judges, army and security service
personnel, and members of the Constitutional Council.  Most
political groups, except the FIS which was banned in March
1992, operate openly.  There were over 55 parties, including
some centrist Islamic parties such as Hamas, active in 1994.
Other associations include specialized groups such as human
rights and womens' rights groups, social welfare groups, and
regionally based cultural organizations.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

The Constitution declares Islam as the state religion but
prohibits discrimination based on religious belief.  The
Government permits the small Christian and Jewish populations
(numbering approximately 1,000 and 200, respectively) to
practice their faiths without interference.

However, communiques signed by the Armed Islamic Group declared
that the intention to eliminate "Jews, Christians, and
polytheists from Islam's land in Algeria."  The Christian
community, composed mostly of foreigners, curtailed its
activities and evacuated some church workers because of death
threats from terrorists (see Section 1.a.).  Conversions from
Islam to Christianity are rare.  Because of legal problems and
social stigma, Muslim converts to Christianity practice their
new faith clandestinely.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs appoints Islamic preachers in
both state and private mosques.  The Ministry of Religious
Affairs proposes themes for and monitors sermons.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
         Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

The law provides for freedom of domestic and foreign travel and
freedom to emigrate.  The Government generally respects these
provisions, although it imposes some restrictions on men of
military age.  Under the state of emergency, the Minister of
Interior and the provincial governors may deny residency in
certain districts to persons regarded as threats to public
order.  A curfew originally imposed in 1992 prohibits people
from traveling in Algiers and the surrounding provinces between
11:30 p.m. and 4 a.m.  Police checkpoints in the cities and
countryside routinely stop vehicles to inspect identification
papers and search for evidence of terrorist activity.

The Constitution provides for the right of political asylum,
and the Government has granted asylum in a few cases.  The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates
that approximately 165,000 Sahrawis, or natives of the Sahara
desert, live in camps in southwestern Algeria.  The Government
granted permission to the ICRC to visit camps holding Saharawi
refugees and Moroccan prisoners of war.  (See the report on
human rights in Western Sahara for fuller treatment of these
issues.)  The Government tolerates and provides basic support
for an estimated 50,000 displaced Tuaregs from Mali and Niger
in settlements in southern Algeria.