The idea that Bush favors democracy in Iraq is a big lie of Hitlerian proportions. He installed a US puppet regime in Afghansitan by force. And I suspect that he would like to install an Algerian type regime in Iraq. A regime that has done the following:
Algeria accused of killing
thousands in secret war
By Katherine Butler Deputy
Foreign Editor
28 February 2003
Algeria's powerful military rulers have been
accused of allowing the "disappearances" of at
least 7,000 people during an undeclared civil war
with radical Islamists they have waged over the
past 10 years.
An investigation by Human Rights Watch in New
York concluded yesterday that the Algerian
leadership was guilty of gross human rights
violations. Algeria had "utterly failed" to
investigate the thousands of civilians made to
"disappear" by the state security forces between
1992 and 1998, who remain unaccounted for.
"None of the missing has returned and no one
has been held accountable for their
disappearance," it said.
Hanny Megally, of Human Rights Watch, said: "All of the government's
missing-person bureaux, complaint mechanisms and responses to foreign
queries amount to a cruel stonewalling operation. Our research shows the
government has not produced a shred of information, even when families can
furnish details about the security forces they saw abduct their sons and
husbands."
The report said not one person accused of involvement in a "disappearance"
had been charged or brought to trial.
Separately, Amnesty International accused the Algerian security forces
yesterday of widespread torture and demanded information on the fate of the
missing people. After a two-week mission – the first the organisation has been
allowed to make in three years – Amnesty said torture was systematic and
widespread.
The damning reports come on the eve of a visit to Algiers by Jacques Chirac,
the first such visit by a French President to Algeria since independence in 1962.
Algeria has been ravaged by violence since 1992, when generals cancelled
elections that radical Islamist groups were poised to win. The people, in a
backlash against corruption and repression, had voted overwhelmingly for the
radical Islamic Salvation Front, a wing of which then took up arms.
At least 100,000 people are believed to have died in the decade since, a period
punctuated by unspeakable atrocities and insecurity. Massacres of civilians are
routine – although less frequent in recent months – and generally blamed on
the shadowy GIA (Armed Islamic Group). But powerful factions within the
secretive ruling military elite have been accused of orchestrating kidnappings,
assassinations and even massacres to manipulate the GIA and reinforce the
army's own grip on power. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, installed by the
military in 1999, has offered Islamist groups amnesty but the GIA has rejected
the offer.
Since the 11 September atrocities, the government has enjoyed a thaw in
relations with the West thanks to its self-proclaimed record on tackling
terrorism.
America, which suspended aid to Algeria after the cancellation of the 1992
elections and the ensuing bloodshed, announced recently that it would resume
the sale of military equipment to the Algerian government to help it combat
Islamic militants.
The EU has also been fostering closer ties with Algiers. Algeria supplies much
of the natural gas European consumers rely on. Human Rights Watch says that
despite the inclusion of a human rights clause in a bilateral trade and aid deal
concluded between the EU and Algiers in 2001, repeated inquiries on the
disappeared have yielded nothing.
President Bouteflika has proposed compensating families of the missing. The
government admits it has received complaints about more than 4,000 missing
people.
M. Chirac is under intense pressure from campaigners to use his influence to
seek an independent commission to compel the testimony of state security
agents and the disclosure of documents. While there have been few cases of
state sponsored "disappearances" since 2000, Human Rights Watch said little
had been done to prevent their recurrence.
The investigation also accuses armed groups that call themselves Islamic of
kidnapping thousands of Algerians during the armed strife.
Omar Ourad is one presumed victim of such groups. He was kidnapped from
his home in Baraki, near Algiers, by an armed group in August 1994, and was
never seen again. He was 48. His son, Yassine Ourad, a photographer, told
Human Rights Watch: "As they left they told us, 'Don't worry, we're just taking
him for questioning.' They took him in his pyjamas. Until today we don't know
who took him."
28 February 2003 11:37
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