NEW YORK — An Amnesty International report released on November 19 documents a spiralling increase in violence in Algeria, which has claimed up to 80,000 lives since 1992. Amnesty called for an international investigation into recent massacres and other abuses and the development of a long-term human rights plan.
Human rights abuses by security forces, state-armed militias and armed groups calling themselves Islamic groups are increasingly widespread, said Amnesty, citing the everyday occurrence of killings, torture, "disappearances", abductions and death threats.
The civil war began when the military cancelled the second round of elections, expected to be won by the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front, in 1992.
In 1997, the civilian population, caught between the military government and armed militias, has been targeted. Thousands have been slaughtered, decapitated, mutilated or burned alive in their homes.
Most of the massacres were committed around the capital in the Algeris, Blida and Medea regions — the most heavily militarised part of the country — often near army and security forces barracks. Some massacres, often lasting hours, took place only a few hundred metres away from government barracks.
The report slates the Algerian authorities, who Amnesty says have blamed the massacres on the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) — a split from the FIS — and other such groups, just as they have blamed killings and other abuses on these groups over the last five years.
But, says Amnesty, "they have consistently failed to investigate, or allow others to investigate, killings and other abuses blamed on both armed groups and security forces."
Testimonies of survivors of the massacres at Rais and Bentalha, a few kilometres south of Algiers, in August and September, add weight to reports that armed groups which carried out the massacres of civilians in some cases operated in conjunction with, or with the consent of, certain army or security forces, said Amnesty.
Both villages are virtually surrounded by army barracks and security forces' outposts, and survivors from Bentalha reported that troops with armoured vehicles were stationed only a few hundred metres away.
"The massacres lasted for hours. Yet despite the screams of the victims, sound of gunshots, flames and smoke from the burning houses, the security forces never intervened to rescue the victims or arrest those responsible."
In Beni Messous, reportedly near the most important barracks and security forces centre of the capital, more than 60 civilians were massacred. When neighbours called the security forces, they refused to intervene, saying it was a matter for the gendarmerie.
Armed groups calling themselves "Islamic groups", said Amnesty, "have continued to arbitrarily kill civilians, often targeting the most vulnerable or bombing public places. Among those targeted for killing, threatening, abducting, torturing or raping, have been relatives of members of the security forces, civil servants, journalists, artists, young people who have completed compulsory military service and people suspected of supporting the government."
According to Amnesty, Algerian authorities have claimed that the security situation is "under control" and that "terrorism is residual", while arming civilians and encouraging them to set up militia groups.