21 - 27 December 2000
Issue No.513
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 December 2000 Issue No.513 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Ramadan carnage
On Saturday and Sunday alone, suspected members of Algeria's most violent militant organisation, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), brutally massacred a total of 40 Algerians. This brought the death toll among innocent civilians to 200 since the holy fasting month of Ramadan started in late November.The massacres dealt a strong blow to Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika's effort to restore calm in the country torn by nearly 10 years of violence in which more than 100,000 people have been killed. It also confirmed the pattern which suspected militants had been following in recent years -- escalating their attacks during Ramadan due to their extremist beliefs that this is the month of jihad and sacrifice.
Algeria's Islamists claim that President Bouteflika's reconciliation effort has been stalled for a while, and that no real progress has been achieved since the country's largest Islamic group, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) declared a cease-fire more than a year ago. Only a few hundred Islamist prisoners were released and reconciliation talks with extremist groups failed to convince their leaders to join FIS's cease-fire.
Saad Abdel-Jabar, a London-based Algerian lawyer who is close to Islamists, commented that Bouteflika was more engaged in solving international problems -- referring to the Algerian president's recent effort to reach a peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea -- than solving the problems of his own country. Bouteflika, a former foreign minister, did indeed make a comeback for Algeria on the international scene due to his active personal participation in many world conferences and events. Yet, facts on the ground in Algeria continue to prove that, despite improvement in the security situation, suspected militants continue to pose a dangerous threat to the country's stability and safety of innocent civilians.
On Monday, Al-Watan newspaper reported that a group of terrorists machine-gunned a bus carrying civilians, killing 15 and wounding several others at a fake roadblock on Sunday night near the city of Tenes, 200 km (125 miles) west of Algiers.
In another attack one hour later, five civilians, including three women, were shot dead by rebels in the small city of Khemis Miliana, 120 km (75 miles) west of Algiers.
The attacks came only 24 hours after the massacre of 15 teenage students and a teacher while they were asleep in the boys' dormitory of a high school in the town of Medea, 90 km (55 miles) south of Algiers, on Saturday night. Political sources said the school was targeted because the rebels apparently wanted to attract media attention with a spectacular attack.
Breaking its customary silence on rebel attacks, the official Algerian Press Agency (APS) reported the Medea raid, ending nearly two years of a blackout on security-related news in state-controlled media.
Also on Monday, the daily Al-Youm added to the weekend toll, saying security forces had killed 10 Islamic militants and captured two others who had abducted eight women in the Skikda region, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the capital Algiers.
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