BOUBKER BELKADI, Algiers | Monday
A DELEGATION from Amnesty International has left strife-torn Algeria disappointed at being unable to meet government officials and army officers over rights abuses, a spokesman said.
Roger Clark, a Canadian leading the delegation from the human rights organisation, said the group regretted that it could not realise the goals it had set itself for the two-week visit.
Clark said he was saddened by the “absence of specific information on human rights abuses committed by the state and security services,” and not being able to meet high-ranking Algerian officials and army officers.
“The Algerian authorities aren’t ready to meet us and answer our questions,” he said, adding that it was important the state move beyond rhetoric on human rights issues.
He added that Amnesty would make as many visits to Algeria “as is necessary to ascertain the truth.”
More than 100000 people have died in Algeria’s civil war, which broke out in 1992 after the military stepped in to deny certain electoral victory to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
The delegation arrived on November 5 for its second visit this year, after being banned in 1996.
Just after the trip began, on November 8, Amnesty published a statement from Lausanne slamming the Algerian government for not taking steps to deal with a “huge problem of impunity” it claimed prevails in the country.
Algiers has done nothing to carry out independent investigations into murders and other abuses of human rights committed over the past years, Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty also said it “opposes amnesty laws and other mechanisms that prevent the truth from coming out and prevent those responsible for attacks on human rights from being held accountable for their actions”.
The authorities, who accuse Amnesty of equating “terrorists” and the security services, vehemently denied the allegations.
The National Observatory for Human Rights (ONDH), an official body, said the group was trying to cast doubt on the credibility of state institutions and question the security forces.
Algeria’s Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni accused Amnesty of using human rights like a stock in trade and of “digging incidents out of the freezer to put pressure on the state and people.” – AFP