ALGERIA: UN Investigates Human Rights Violations

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 21 1998 (IPS) - The first public confrontation of Algerian authorities with an international forum on human rights law made plain the “deficient law and order situation” in this nation, said members of the UN Human Rights Committee.

For the first time in the last six years, the Algerian government was forced to face harsh criticism of its human rights record in the civil war raging since 1991, at the cost of 80,000 lives.

The public hearing this week in Geneva formed the prelude to another international investigation with the visit from a panel of eminent persons designated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Algerian soil.

The UN mission to Algeria, led by former president of Portugal, Mario Soares, will stay in the country for two weeks, later presenting their report to Annan.

In Geneva, the official Algerian delegation headed by UN accredited ambassador, Mohamed Salah Dembri, responded to two days of questioning from the Committee charged with monitoring the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Independent French expert, Christine Chanet, the Committee Chair, said the argument wielded by the Algerian regime – basically blaming the armed Islamic faction for all the upsets, “has not been sufficient to explain the violations of law and order.”

The Algerian representatives were on the defensive, blaming all the violations on the terrorists, said Chanet.

The few violations committed by the Armed Forces are chased up in the courts, said the Algerians, but most offences are down to the insurgent groups, they added.

When hearing allegations of torture, disappearances or summary executions on the government side the Algerian delegates invariably claim the sources are unreliable, said Chanet.

The French expert told a press conference the National Human Rights Office, an official Algerian body, had recognised some serious complaints, demanding the government investigate the charges.

A group of human rights organisations lamented the audience with the Algerian delegation would end Wednesday with no concrete answers being found and no details offered to the more precise questions formulated by the 18-member Committee.

The human rights organisations’ declaration was signed by Amnesty International, the International Federation of Leagues of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and Reporeurs sans Frontieres.

The experts unanimously expressed their concern over the serious human rights crisis in Algeria, said the human rights groups’ document.

A number of them also noted the Algerian authorities have reneged on their obligation to combat violence in the framework of respect for law and order.

Chanet said that under the system currently in place in Algeria “there are elements which ignore the rule of law,” like the legitimate defence groups.

She described these as “groups of persons who act under a certain legality, armed with the authorisation and weaponry” of the governmnent.

When the Algerian delegation claimed the local people had demanded the formation of these groups, she replied, “We notice that if the population demands the formation of these groups it is because it has no faith in the armed forces.”

And the existence of paramilitary groups is very dangerous, added Chanet, each civilian becomes a military target, which is good for the terrorists. We hope there will be modifications in the Algerian State, she said.

She said the government responses to claims of disappearances were “weak.” The human rights organisations have listed 2,000 cases of disappearance, added to the tens of thousands of deaths caused by the armed conflict between Islamic fundamentalists and the Algerian regime.

The Algerian delegation explained the measures adopted to protect the lives of journalists – from 1993 to 1994 there were an average of two members of the press murdered each week.

Hence, 700 journalists are accomodated in hotels along the coast protected by the security forces, explained an Algerian official.

However, there has been friction in recent weeks, he admitted, as the government decided to empty one of the hotels in preparation for the African Unity Organisation conference next year in Algiers.

Some 50 journalists refused to be moved to other lodgings, but some solution will be found to the problem, said the delegate.