An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres

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An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres

Postby Jeff » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:04 am

PDF here (in sections; totals over 1000 pages):

http://www.hoggar.org/index.php?option= ... &task=view


The GIA's involvement in Algeria's brutal civilian massacres (sometimes involving blunt weapons) and international terrorism (like bomb attacks in the Paris Metro) has been well established in the media. What has not been established is the precise nature of the GIA. Is the GIA the al-Qaeda of Algeria--or more like the Contras of North Africa?

In the book An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres (Hoggar Books), the chapter "What is the GIA?" establishes beyond a doubt that the GIA is a counter insurgency (COIN) or counter-guerilla army along the lines of Selous Scouts in the Rhodesia-Zimbabwean war (1972-1979) and, ironically, France's Force K in the Algerian war of liberation (1954-1962). Operating like a guerilla force in tactics and organization, COIN groups are the photo-negative image of the insurgents, taking the war back to the guerillas, sowing distrust among the rebels and reaping terror among their civilian support base.

http://www.algeria-watch.de/farticle/connection.htm



Algerian massacre site 'erased by police'
Human rights campaigner tells of finding mass grave

The Algerian authorities have erased the first evidence to appear of the graves of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people believed to have been kidnapped and killed by army-backed anti-Islamist militias in the 1990s, according to human rights campaigners.

Campaigners who secretly dug up a mass grave near the western town of Relizane last November, and who claim to have identified one militia victim buried there, said the site had since been cleaned out by police.

The police now refuse to acknowledge the grave's existence. But the human rights campaigners have photographic evidence, some of which the Guardian publishes today, showing the bones and clothing found near Relizane.

It is the first public evidence of what campaigners believe is the last resting place of some 200 victims from Relizane, while thousands of other victims of state-backed militias are thought to be in similar graves elsewhere.

The scandal comes as pressure grows on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is leading Algeria towards renewed acceptance by the west, to investigate the role of the so-called Patriot militias in the civil conflict that claimed 120,000 lives in the 1990s.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/ja ... estremlett


'I saw Algerian soldiers massacre civilians'
Jon Henley in Paris, Guardian, February 14, 2001

The French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, made a flying five-hour visit to Algiers yesterday as tension between the two countries was increased by allegations that Algerian troops are as guilty of civilian atrocities as the Islamist militants they are supposed to be fighting.

Mr Védrine pointedly refused to discuss the accusation, made by a former Algerian army officer, Habib Souaidia, in a book published in Paris last week.

"I am here to work, to feed and develop the important links between France and Algeria," he said before a meeting with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The Algerian government is furious at the credence the French media and intellectuals have given to The Dirty War, a detailed and shocking account of almost a decade of alleged Algerian army involvement in the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

"I have seen colleagues burn alive a 15-year-old child. I have seen soldiers disguising themselves as terrorists and massacring civilians," Mr Souaidia wrote. "I have seen colonels kill mere suspects in cold blood. I have seen officers torture fundamentalists to death. I have seen too many things."

A group of prominent French and north African intellectuals has seized on Mr Souaidia's account to denounce France's the kid-glove approach to the Bouteflika regime, calling it "complicity in crimes against humanity".

"For too long the French government has supported Algerian policy which, under cover of a fight against terrorism, aims at nothing less than the eradication, both political and physical, of any opposition whatsoever," the group wrote in the daily Le Monde.

...

http://www.algeria-watch.de/farticle/sa ... ardian.htm



Image

U.S. President George W. Bush holds hands with President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a group photo with Africa Outreach Representatives at the G8 Summit at The Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa in Toyako, Japan (July 7, 2008)
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Postby starviego » Fri Aug 29, 2008 8:07 pm

Algeria is a pro-western country with huge resevoirs of natural gas in which western financial interests have substantial holdings. That makes it OK.
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