POLITICS-ALGERIA: Lieutenant Silences the General Instead

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Sep 30 2002 (IPS) - An Algerian general has failed to silence an ex-lieutenant’s account of atrocities committed by the Algerian army.

General Khaled Nezzar had sued former lieutenant Habib Souaidia in Paris over his book ‘La Sale Guerre’ (The Dirty War) in which Souaidia said the Algerian army had massacred civilians in the early nineties and blamed the Islamic opposition for the killings. The book published in Paris in May last year became a best-seller.

In a ruling Friday the French court cleared Souaidia of libel charges brought by the general. The court ruled that the contents of Souaidia’s book are “legitimate”. The court ruled that Souaidia is a privileged witness of the “particularly dramatic contemporary Algerian situation.”

Nezzar who had fought back the Islamic insurrection during the nineties is considered by many to be the Algerian strongman, ruling the country from behind the facade of a civilian regime. But in launching a libel case against Souaidia, Nezzar inadvertently gave Algerian dissidents, scholars and human right organisations a public forum to discuss Algeria’s dismal conditions.

These matters were brought up in the French court in July when Algeria was celebrating the 40th anniversary of its independence from France. The celebrations were overshadowed by widespread mistrust of the Algerian government and army.

The allegations by Souaidia against Nezzar and other army leaders relate to the civil war that followed military suspension of the parliamentary elections in January 1992. The Islamic Salvation Front had won the first round and looked poised to win the second round and the decisive run-off.

Souaidia says in his book that the Algerian army stopped the electoral process and ordered thousands of Algerians killed. Souaidia served as officer in the Algerian army until 1996, and took part in operations against Islamic guerrillas.

Souaidia says patriotism had led him to join the army in the early nineties. “I was barely 20 years old, and I thought that by combating Islamic fundamentalism I was fulfilling a patriotic duty and helping to save my country,” he said in his testimony before the Paris court.

“In the beginning we spoke about restoring order in the country,” Souaidia told the court. “But very soon the generals made of us an army of wild murderers.”

Souaidia said: “We had permission to kill whoever we wanted to for nothing at all.” He pointed to Nezzar who was sitting in front of him and said that “at the same time they were counting the millions of dollars they had stolen from the people.”

The arguments in court established a consistency in Souaidia’s allegations against the Algerian military leadership. Several former Algerian officers who now live in exile in France corroborated Souaidia’s statements.

Former colonel Mohammed Samraoui testified that “the Algerian army used all means to attack the Islamic rebellion: blackmail, corruption, threats, killings…we used terrorist methods to attack terrorism even before it had appeared.”

Another former officer Ahmed Chouchene claimed that soldiers and officers were told in the military academies to kill people freely as long as they could “produce a false explanation for the killings.” Algerian soldiers and officers were taught that “their role was not to apply law, but to circumvent it.”

During the proceedings Nezzar conducted himself like a judge in a military tribunal, giving orders to witnesses and often refusing to answer simple questions.

Francis Gèze, a French publisher who has supported Algerian dissidents says the hearings revealed “the clumsiness of the Algerian generals and their incapacity to comprehend how democratic institutions work, such as the rule of law, the protection of witnesses in a proper judicial process and the right of dissidents to express their views.”

Algerian scholars gave evidence about the state of the government in Algeria. “The army is not in the service of the state, but it is the other way around,” historian Mohammed Harbi said. “Absolute power is with a few top military officers,” said Harbi, who was a hero of the Algerian independence struggle.