Part 4

    a) An article by Robert Fisk in  The Independent. In the past few years
    Robert Fisk has written visited Algeria and written numerous articles
    on the situation.
    b) An article of the Observer where 2 former policemen seeking asylum in
    Britain claim to have been ordered to  participate in killings
    c) An article from The Observer where a former agent  claims that the
    bombings in Paris in 1996 were masterminded by  Algeria's securite
    militaire.
    =====================================
    Item 4-a
    
    The Independent
               January 7, 1998
               By Robert Fisk
    
               Algeria terror touches the world
    
               The latest horrors perpetrated against the civilians
               of Algeria - at least 600 men, women and
               children slaughtered in less than a week - have
               finally provoked calls for an international inquiry
               from the US as well as Europe. But as our
               Middle East Correspondent Robert Fisk reports,
               the massacres will go on, as Algeria's
               military-backed government ignores the outside
               world.
    
               Given the lethargy - the near-criminal silence - of
               the West, Washington's demand for an
               international enquiry into the New Year
               massacres must have shocked even Algeria's
               normally unperturbable generals. Only a few
               weeks ago, the departing US ambassador to
               Algiers claimed that President Liamine Zeroual
               was on "the right track" in his ruthless war against
               the government's armed opponents. But the
               carefully crafted appeal for an enquiry shows that
               even the US State Department no longer believes
               that the Algerian bloodbath can be attributed only
               to 'Islamists'.
    
               As Washington called for an investigation into
               Algeria's human rights abuses as well as the
               massacres - a sure sign of its concern at the
               torture now routinely practiced by the country's
               state security police - there came news of yet
               another mass killing in western Algeria and on a
               bus outside the capital. Most of the weekend
               dead - including, as always, women and children
               - were burned alive in three villages; in last week's
               slaughter in four villages near the town of
               Relizane, local newspapers report that 412
               civilians were decapitated or disembowelled. As
               usual in Algeria, the killers had chosen the Muslim
               holy month of Ramadan to launch a new wave of
               barbarity.
    
               Ironically, there seems little doubt that the
               Relizane murders were indeed the work of the
               extreme Islamic Armed Group (GIA). The
               villagers at Ouled Sahnine, Kherarba, El Abadel
               and Ouled Tayeb were themselves Islamists and
               had voted in the 1991 elections for the Islamic
               Salvation Front (FIS) whose armed wing - the
               Islamic Salvation Army (ISA) - declared a
               ceasefire last October. In a series of tracts
               distributed in the area, the GIA warned that it was
               moving into western Algeria, and even the local
               military commander, General Kamel
               Abderahmane, warned the inhabitants to join
               pro-government militias in order to defend
               themselves.
    
               "People must either arm or take refuge in the
               towns," he said. "The state does not have the
               means to put a soldier outside every front door."
               That, it seems, was the extent of the army's
               'protection'. On the face of it, the Relizane
               massacres, which the government says left "only"
               78 dead, appear to be the GIA's revenge for the
               villagers' loyalty to the rival ISA. In any event, the
               killers - who have hitherto used knives, wire and
               portable guillotines to butcher civilians - added
               yet another grotesque feature to their latest
               atrocity: whole families were herded into 'killing
               rooms' to have their throats cut, with shovels as
               well as knives. One survivor awoke amid the
               blood of his relatives to find more than 50
               corpses in a single house.
    "We would like to see the government do more to
               protect its civilians while respecting the rule of
               law," the US State Department spokesman James
               Rubin said. "We would like to see an international
               enquiry get to the bottom of it." Mr Rubin added
               that the United States "condemned the massacres
               and bombing in Algeria" and wanted
               non-governmental organisations to conduct an
               investigation. The Algerian authorities, he added,
               had already agreed to allow a UN envoy to
               conduct a "fact-finding" mission.
    
               But what can the envoy do? He will need
               government protection to enter the killing fields of
               Algeria - and no-one will speak freely to him in
               the presence of policemen. Furthermore, the
               Algerian government's total refusal to
               countenance any form of outside involvement
               suggests that the latest European gestures of
               concern will prove useless.
    
               A demand from France - which killed a million
               Algerians during the 1954-62 war - that the
               government must protect its own people, is likely
               to fall on deaf ears. An EU statement expressed
               only "deep concern" at the situation.
    
               In Dublin, the Irish foreign minister David
               Andrews, who after a 24-hour visit to Algiers last
               month urged foreigners to stop condemning
               Algeria and described President (and ex-general)
               Zeroual as "a fine man, dedicated, a strong decent
               man," yesterday (Tuesday) substantially changed
               his line.
    
               The Algerian government, he now said, was guilty
               of "committing atrocities and human rights
               transgressions." The Algerian government was not
               democratic but the massacres had to be brought
               to an end. It is a pious hope - and one that will,
               almost certainly, go unfulfilled.
    =================================================
    
    Item 4-b
    
    
    Excerpt:
    
      "Two policemen seeking asylum in Britain told the Observer
       they took part in massacres and torture of defenceless
       civilians, under orders. The defectors said special forces
       disguised as 'fundamentalists' with beards and Muslim dress
       slaughtered entire families in the middle of the night."
    
    Full text below:
    
      The Observer
      Sunday January 11, 1998
    
      Police role in Algerian killings exposed
    
      By John Sweeney
    
      Fresh evidence that at least some of the massacres in
      Algeria are the work of the regime's military security
      force emerged last night against the backdrop of yet
      another rural mass killing.
    
      The slaughter of 55 civilians in Algeria's killing fields -
      added to the 1,000 murdered in the first 10 days of Ramadan
      - amounts to the worst violence in Algeria's six-year civil
      war. The latest massacres followed an all too familiar
      pattern of unarmed villagers being surprised and
      overwhelmed by armed men. All that is left is dozens of
      hacked corpses, including those of women, children and even
      infants and those responsible escape into the dark. The
      three latest massacres reportedly involved armed gunmen,
      who also abducted young women. More commonly knives and
      axes are used for the slaughter.
    
      The massacres have renewed pressure on Foreign Secretary
      Robin Cook, now leading the European Union's belated
      efforts to allay Algeria's agony.
    
      Two policemen seeking asylum in Britain told the Observer
      they took part in massacres and torture of defenceless
      civilians, under orders. The defectors said special forces
      disguised as 'fundamentalists' with beards and Muslim dress
      slaughtered entire families in the middle of the night.
    
      International rage is growing at evidence that the Algerian
      regime is deliberately not protecting its people and that
      the unpopular generals are colluding in killings.
    
      Algiers still rejects any United Nations investigation into
      the massacres, but as a sop to European sensitivity has
      agreed to a strictly limited EU diplomatic mission. Algeria
      said talks should concentrate on confronting 'terrorism'
      and ruled out any inquiry into the killings.
    
      The two policemen who spoke to the Observer recommend that
      the European mission should visit five torture complexes in
      Algiers. They include the basement of the Châteauneuf
      barracks, a complex beneath the barracks in Ben Aknoun Zoo
      - the zoo station, the torture complex at Beni-Messous, and
      the torture complex in the basement of the central police
      headquarters.
    
      Copyright Guardian Media Group plc 1998
    
    =======================================================
    Item 4-c
    
    Algerian Regime Responsible for Massacres
    
         Algeria regime 'was behind Paris bombs'
         by John Sweeney and Leonard Doyle
    
         Front Page, Manchester Guardian Weekly, November 16, 1997
    
         BOMBS in Paris, help for Saddam Hussein's programme to produce
    weapons
    of mass
    destruction, the regime
         of terror at home -- today Algeria's secret police state is
    indicted by
    one of its own
    members or crimes against
         humanity.
    
         "Yussuf-Joseph" was a career secret agent in Algeria's securite
    militaire until he
    defected to Britain, bringing with
         him the deepest secrets of the regime's links with President
    Saddam.
    His wife an
    children were spirited out. Two
         and a half years later they are still waiting for political asylum.
    "Joseph" spent 14
    years as part of the Algerian
         police state. In one gulag torture chamber he saw "a human eye
    lying on
    a table, and in
    the eye a fork". He now
         risks assassination for speaking out publicly.
    
         He said: "The bombs that outraged Paris in 1995 -- blamed on Muslim
    fanatics -- were
    the handiwork of the
         Algerian secret service. They were part of a propaganda war aimed
    at
    galvanising French
    public opinio n against
         the Islamists."
    
         The Algerian police state is hiding material for President Saddam's
    nuclear, chemical
    and biological warfare
         programme. Intelligence agents from the two countries are
    collaborating
    to defeat the
    United Nations sanctions
         against Iraq.The relentless massacres in Algeria are the work of
    secret
    police and army
    death squads.
    
         Algerian intelligence agents routinely bribe Eurpean police,
    journalists and MPs.
    Joseph said he paid one French
         MP, who cannot be named for legal reasons, more than 500,000 francs
    (about $90,000) in
    bribes.
    
         The killing of many foreigners was orga nised by the secret police,
    not
    Islamic
    extremists.Joseph, a strained,
         pale, intense man, described the most secret workings of the
    Algerian
    police state. He
    revealed that the constant
         terror! in which civilians live is orchestrated by two shadowy
    figures,
    more powerful
    than the nominal president,
         General Liamine Zeroual. The police state is run as the private
    fiefdom
    of two men:
    Mohammed Mediane,
         codename "Tewfik", and General Smain Lamari, the most feared names
    in
    Algeria. They
    are, respectively, head
         of the Algeri n secret service, the DRS, and its sub-department,
    the
    counter
    intelligence agency, the DCE.
    
         "[President] Zeroual is just the cherry on the cake," said Joseph.
    "Tewfik is much more
    important and Smain is
         his enforcer." Since the military coup in 1992 after the first
    round of
    elections in
    which the Islamic Salvation
         Front (FIS) was set to take power, the violence has escalated to
    make
    Algeria the most
    dangerous country in
         the world. The carnage in Algeria and the bombs in France have been
    blamed on a group
    of Muslim fanatics,
         the Armed Islamic Group, or GIA. Joseph said: "The GIA is a pure
    product of Smain's
    secret service." His
         testimony is supported by a former diplomat, Mohammed Larbi Zitout,
    No
    2 at the
    Algerian embassy in Libya
         until he defected to Britain. "I used to read all the secret
    telexes,"
    Joseph said. "I
    know that the GIA has been
         infiltrated and manipulated by the government. The GIA has been
    completely turned by
    the government."
    
         Joseph said secret agents who flew in from Algeria, sent by Smain,
    organised "at least"
    two of the bombs in
         Paris in the summer of 1995, in which several people were killed.
    The
    operation was run
    by Colonel Souames
         Mahmoud, alias Habib, head of the secret service at the Algerian
    embassy in Paris. Two
    men were later seized
         by French police. One, Khaled Kelkal, was shot in cold blood, his
    killing caught on
    camera. The second, Karim
         Moussa, was captured, injured. He has since disappeared and th
    French
    authorities have
    failed to explain what
         happened to this most-wanted suspect.
    
         Joseph said Tewfik and Smain spent some of Algeria's oil and gas
    billions to bribe
    politicians and security
         officials in Europe. Joseph said: "I personally delivered a
    suitcase
    containing 500,000
    francs to one French MP
         with strong links to the French intelligence services." The MP, who
    lost his seat at
    the last election, is a noted
         apologist for the Algerian and Iraqi regimes.
    
         The power of the securite militaire is such that it murdered a
    president, Joseph said.
    President Mohammed
         Boudiaf was assassinated in June 1992 by people within le pouvoir.
    He
    knows because two
    of the killers were
         associates in the securite militaire. "Boudiaf was killed because
    he
    had very sensitive
    files on corrupt generals.
         The generals have made millions from corruption, held in Swiss
    banks.
    Boudiaf started
    an inquiry." Fatiha
         Boudiaf, the president's widow, said last week: "Boudiaf knew that
    he
    would be killed
    by those who brought
         him to power" -- a coded reference to the secret police.
    
         Joseph said the massacres, in which tens of thousands of Algerians
    have
    been killed
    since the civil war started in
         1992, have been carried out by the regime's death squads. "Le
    pouvoir
    are behind th
    massacres and other
         killings besides. It's to maintain the state of fear," he said. "In
    1992 Smain created
    a special group, L'Escadron
         de la Mort [the Squadron of Death]. One of its main missions to
    begin
    with was to kill
    officers, colonels. The
         death squads organise the massacres. If anyone inside the killing
    machine hesitates to
    torture or kill, they are
         automatically killed . . . The FIS aren't doing the massacres. All
    the
    intelligence
    services in Europe know the
         government is doing it, but they are keeping quiet because they
    want to
    protect their
    supplies of oil."
    
         Joseph said he had witnessed torture. "I have seen the blowtorch
    used
    in Chateauneuf.
    The smell is awful. . . . It
         has a very special smell of burning hair and flesh." But the
    blowtorch
    was not the
    worst. "I have seen in Antar, a
         torture centre near Algiers zoo, a human eye on a table with a fork
    in
    it . . . I have
    terrible nightmares."
    
         He described electrode torture he had seen. "They manacle a person
    to a
    bed, no
    mattress, just the springs.
         Then they get a live electric wire and touch the person -- he made
    a
    swishing movement,
    his right hand coming
         down in a lash. "Smain used to go to the torture zoo and my
    colleagues
    would say: 'The
    Boss is here. He is
         working.' That meant he was supervising the torture himself." --
    
         The Guardian Weekly, Week ending November 16, 1997