AMNESTY International has called on German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Johannes Rau to bring up the issue of thousands of missing people in Algeria when Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika visits Berlin on Monday and Tuesday. The German branch of Amnesty said there are more than 4_000 people missing since 1992 and “it is to be feared that they are kept hidden and tortured,” the non-governmental organisation said in a communiqu. Amnesty cited the case of El Hadj M’Lik, 73, who was allegedly arrested on April 14, 2000, and not seen again until 10 months later “in a prison in Ben Aknoun (in Algiers)” in bad health. The authorities deny he is being detained, Amnesty said. Its communiqu said the Algerian government has refused to allow a UN mission to investigate the missing people. It called on Schroeder and Rau, as well as Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, to call for “independent and impartial investigations.” – AFP