Alkarama for Human Rights and the Constantine Association of Families of the Disappeared, have today submitted 19 new cases to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances. On 6 December 2007 and 22 September 2005, the two organizations had already communicated respectively 165 and 672, cases of persons missing after being kidnapped by members of Algerian security services.
The Algerian security services, all bodies included, agents of the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS), military, national gendarmerie, police and paramilitary forces engaged for nearly a decade in massive and systematic arbitrary arrests followed by disappearance of civilians – moderate estimates are 7,000 victims and according to some sources, are up to 20 000. It is a practice coordinated at the national level, conducted in accordance with a characteristic and identifiable modus operandi.
The arrival in 1999 of Mr. Bouteflika to the presidency, has seen far fewer victims of enforced disappearances, however this practice has not been totally abolished. Even today people are arrested and held incommunicado, sometimes for months, so they can during this period also be considered as disappeared.
Manipulations around the number of missing
After years of denial, the Algerian State was forced to acknowledge the existence of the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. It however attributed the responsibility to individual blunders. The authorities refuse to investigate, prosecute criminally and punish the perpetrators and used the slogan "the state is responsible but not guilty."
The denial also lies in the recognition of the number of missing. After declaring in 2003 that the National Gendarmerie had provided the "exact number" 7 200 victims, Farouk Ksentini, President of the National Consultative Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CNPPDH), a body close to the Presidency , declared in March 2005, 6,146 disappearances occurred "because of agents of the State". Shortly after, however, he asserts that "at least 3 000 of these persons are persons who have joined the armed groups and died thereafter or are persons who are hiding abroad."
Faced with these contradictory figures, Me Ksentini chairing the ad hoc mechanism "to shed light on enforced disappearances”, explains that the list of 6146 people was in reality based on information from families. But he said that the police estimated the number of missing was at 7,200. And, the mechanism had no mandate to conduct independent investigations, it was still to act as an "interface between government and the families concerned", to "identify cases of alleged disappearance on the basis of all information already collected and those resulting, on the one hand, on actions that will be undertaken by the competent authorities, and on the other hand, all the necessary research to locate people reported missing."
These searches were to be carried out particularly with the various security forces. This means that it is on this basis that the number of missing 6,146 had already been formally established. To claim a few months later that half of these people are "false disappeared" totally discredits the actions of the "ad hoc mechanism" and of the CNCPPDH.
A reconciliation at the price of denial and impunity
Ordinance No. 6 / 01 of 27 February 2006 on the "implementation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation" claims to definitively put an end to the issue of enforced disappearances in Algeria by banning any complaint against the perpetrators of crimes (Article 45) and threatening to jail anyone who tried to "harm their reputation" (Article 46), thus establishing a total and widespread impunity.
The authorities have set up a parallel campaign to coerce the families of victims to accept compensation. The families, however, must request the competent court to establish a judgement of death for their disappeared parent. But, this process forces them to sign a statement attesting that their parent was a terrorist. Only on the basis of these false statements they may receive compensation. From this process, we can better understand how the initial number of disappearances recognized by the authorities can be halved.
Although some families have through necessity accepted the proposals of the authorities, they continue to claim that the truth about the fate of their loved ones and that those responsible for their disappearance be brought to justice. As such, the Constantine Association of Families of the Disappeared, (AFDFC) organizes a weekly sit-in in front of the headquarters of local authorities, despite the pressures and threats against its members to which they are periodically subjected.
The UN Committees have defined the enforced disappearances in Algeria as "crimes against humanity"
The United Nations Human Rights Committee considered the periodic report of Algeria during October 2007. During the discussion, one of the experts of the Committee, Sir Nigel Rodley, has labelled as "crimes against humanity" the serious violations of human rights committed in Algeria, including the thousands of abductions and death. He considers that this had been a "systematic practice".
On 1 November 2007, the Committee made its observations in which it advised Algeria to initiate investigations to establish the circumstances of the disappearances, to initiate the release of detainees in the event of incarceration or reveal the place and cause of possible death, and return the body to the family. The UN body considers it necessary to establish the responsibilities for these disappearances, by prosecuting and convicting those who are criminally responsible.
The Committee against Torture also considered the periodic report of Algeria in May 2008 and shared the same concerns. Several of its members described the forced disappearances in Algeria as "crimes against humanity." It recommended in its concluding observations that Article 45 of the Ordinance should be amended "to clarify that the exemption from prosecution does not apply to any case in crimes such as torture, including rape and enforced disappearance, crimes which are inextinguishable. The State party should take without delay all necessary measures to ensure that cases or recent past cases of torture, including cases of rape, and forced disappearances are systematically and impartially investigated and that the perpetrators are prosecuted and punished (…) "
Given the persistent denial of the Algerian authorities who refuse to return the bodies of victims if they are dead or reveal where they were buried, the families of missing persons have had no other choice but to turn once again to the Working Group.
In addition, several families of disappeared persons have requested Alkarama to submit complaints to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.