Algerian human rights record comes under renewed fire from Amnesty

Date:18/09/03

AMNESTY International this week urged Italy's EU presidency to take a firm stance with Algeria over its alleged failure to probe human rights abuses.

The campaign group believes a closer eye needs to be kept on the north African state, as it is currently taking steps to ratify the "association agreement" it signed with the EU last year.

The accord commits both sides to scrap trade barriers and cooperate in the fight against terrorism and organized crime. But it also contains a clause stating that Algeria must respect basic human rights.

In a new study, Amnesty cites figures indicating that political violence in the state now claims around 100 lives per month, whereas the death toll was two to three times that high in 1999-2000.

While acknowledging improvements, the watchdog voices fears that the national authorities are pursuing a "shoot to kill" policy.

There is no evidence, it says, that the security forces try to apprehend the several hundred suspected members of illegal armed groups killed by them or state-armed militia each year, whether in skirmishes or planned attacks.

"The authorities issue statements about such incidents on an almost daily basis and these are quoted, often in full, by the Algerian press and foreign news agencies, which are almost never able to access independent accounts of what has happened," the study states.

Dick Oosting, director of Amnesty's Brussels office, said: "In its forthcoming talks with the Algerian authorities, the EU must seek concrete commitments to improve the situation, and to address the lack of accountability for past crimes.

"Shying away from confronting Algeria now for its failure to address the most serious human rights abuses will simply fuel the frustration felt by many Algerian citizens."

Algeria has been a hotbed of unrest since 1992, when the country's first multi-party elections were cancelled by a military outraged that the Islamic Salvation Front had garnered the largest vote.

In the interim, tens of thousands have been murdered by different warring parties and thousands more have disappeared.

Amnesty is urging the Italian presidency to insist that a national body on disappearances, which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced last month, has sufficient independence to conduct its work.

It is also advocating what it calls an "end to impunity" by insisting that a waiver from prosecution for armed group members who surrender to the authorities be rescinded.

The waiver has been in effect for more than three years.

The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has urged the Italian Presidency of the European Union to put pressure on Algeria to investigate alleged human rights abuses.