From: jisrawi@physics.rutgers.edu (najeh jisrawi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.french
Subject: GESTAPO in Algeria
Date: 6 Jan 1993 18:05:43 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


                        BISMILLAHI ARRAHMANI ARRAHIM

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 *        O F    H U M A N    R I G H T S    I N    A L G E R I A             *
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 * ........No. 1........................................19 Novembre 1992      *
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    Note: The following is the English translation of a document recently 
    smuggled out of Algeria. Some words were unclear in the original fax 
    document. These words were replaced by ----.


 
EDITORIAL
 
           SILENCE, PEOPLE ARE BEING TORTURED!!

It is with this ugly formula, that one can describe the dangerous human 
rights situation in Algeria: Silence and torture, silence over torture, 
two inseparable monsters ---, in defaillant solidarity.
 
Torture, this inhumane and degrading practice, is today legalized by  
the High State Council (the ruling  Junta), and tend to set firm footing 
in our daily lives with the passing of each day---. Every time it is 
tolerated more and more by the media, who have the heavy 
responsibility of protecting society from this barbaric practice. They 
have to denounce those who torture, regardless of who they are and 
wherever they may be.
 
There is unfortunately worse:  the complicity of our media does not stop 
at contemplating a coward and ugly silence.  Some journalists have 
pushed cynicism and hypocrisy to the extreme, to a point at which they 
look to the other side, and scream with disbelief each time the word 
"torture" is pronounced. "Is torture still practiced?" questioned a 
national daily newspaper recently in its front page. This was in 
response to the brave declarations against human rights violations in 
Algeria made recently by  Ali Yahia Abdennour, lawyer, and President of 
the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights. We salute the 
courage of this man. Is there a need to ask the "question", whether 
torture is practiced or not?
 
There is no Algerian who does not have a family member, a friend, a 
colleague at work, or a neighbor who  did not experience the infamous 
"question". Anyone who knows and says nothing is himself a criminal. 
Our intention is not to put the Algerian media on trial, this is not the 
goal. All what we wanted was to explain the reason for the birth of this 
publication. It is to "break this silence of shame" which is currently 
imposed by a tortionary regime, and an unfulfilling media, that a group 
of free Algerians has taken the initiative to publish, against all odds, 
associated with clandestinity, "The Tribune for Human Rights in Algeria".
 
This Tribune is meant to be a ray of  hope in a cold night of the dark 
incarceration cells of the regime, a cry for freedom shaking the chains 
of political prisoners, who are detained by the thousands in 
concentration camps.
 
Our aim is to break the silence so that torture can be stopped. Our task 
is far from simple and we are aware of it. Those who have been victims 
of torture  are the ones who are unwilling to speak the most for fear of 
reprisal. However, victims are coming froth, slowly, they are starting to 
speak painfully of the ugly. Their testimonies are unbearable, and soon 
will be revealed to the public opinion.
 
In this first issue, we have opted to insert another testimony, which in 
itself is a symbol: Two police officers describing scenes of torture 
inflicted on political detainees. The two officers are ready to testify in 
front of any international commission which accepts to guarantee their 
security. We appeal to all international human rights organizations to 
seriously look into the case "Algeria". There is urgency in the matter.
 
TWO POLICE OFFICERS BRING TESTIMONY ON TORTURE IN ALGERIA
 
Following the Ministry of Interior Communique, in which it was claimed 
that no one was tortured by the security services, we (H) and (M), 
police officers, are ready to bring our testimony regarding torture in 
Algeria in front of any international organization, if we are guaranteed a 
safe heaven outside Algeria. We can prove that not only hundreds are 
being tortured nowadays, but we furthermore have the names of three 
people, including a 17 yrs old young man, who died under torture, we 
have the dates, the place, and the names of those who were responsible 
for their deaths.
 
We furthermore, declare that we do not belong to any political party. We 
have taken the decision to bring forth this testimony after being 
convinced, that what is taking place in Algeria today is nothing less of 
the deeds of the Nazi Gestapo.
 
Our conscience, as Algerians, cannot support anymore seeing other 
Algerians, like us, those we meet in the streets everyday, who are 
perhaps our friends or our neighbors, being tortured like savage beasts 
under the hands of Egyptian torturers. In fact, several months ago, the 
Interior Ministry has called on three Egyptian "torture Masters". The 
first time we had encountered them was during the torture of those 
accused of the Airport bombing. They were torturing Hocine Abderrahim 
(a FIS elected official). Other colleagues of ours have seen them as early 
as March 1991 in the police Academy, the headquarters of the anti-
terrorist Brigade, and the main torture center nick-named "the garage".
 
We have denounced torture and the presence of the Egyptians in  an 
open, anonymous letter addressed to high ranking police officers who 
were gathered in a coordination meeting with ABDESSAMED, police 
Commissioner of Algiers. We have warned them against any dangerous 
drift which would lead the country to dictatorship. The police duty is to 
garrantee public safety and not torture the people in order to protect a 
regime which is illegitimate by all standards. At the end of the meeting 
Abdessamed read the letter and stated that "The only way to reestablish 
order and democracy is through the elimination of bearded militants by 
pulling their beard one hair at a time". He justified the presence of the 
Egyptians by saying that "torture is institutionalized but the political 
leadership want it to be scientific, i.e. clean and without trace. That is 
why the Egyptians are here".
 
The torture sessions are divided in two parts:
In the first phase, the preliminary sessions last no more than three 
days. They consist of interrogating the detainee and attempting to 
extract confessions from him. The detainee has to acknowledge guilt of 
whatever he is accused with. During this phase several methods are 
used. The torturer is free to choose the suitable method, what counts is 
the result.
 
(H) was present in one of these sessions in which the detainee's clothes 
were removed, then he was fastened to the top of the ladder 4 meters 
high, he was then left swinging in the air above a ground covered with 
chick peas. (H) stated that the screams of this 25 years old engineer 
are still reverberating in his head. During torture all means are good: 
"la gegene" (some kind of torture technique), the "wet cloth" (usually 
forced in the mouth of the detainee to dampen his screams and add 
suffocation), acid showers and burning with flame torches. The prisoner 
is forced to drink urine, to sit on a broken bottle and his nails are 
pulled. All kinds of torture, physical sufferings, both inhuman and 
bloody do exist in Algeria.
 
But the security services have acquired new methods inspired by medical 
sciences with the help of a well known Algerian psychiatrist (isn't it Mr. 
X.). The regime is no more interested in extracting confessions only, but 
is after the breaking of the personality and the dehumanization of the 
prisoners as well. That is why the "tough ones" are automatically taken 
to the second phase referred to as the "second course meal".
 
In the second phase the torture sessions are put under the command of 
the Egyptians. Their role consists of breaking the moral balance of the 
prisoners in order to prepare them for all kinds of subsequent 
manipulations. Powerful drugs with neurological effects are administered 
to the victim. They are given in a form of white caplets in a glass of 
water. A moment after drinking this water, the victims begin having 
hallucinations. A prisoner had confessed seeing a huge animal coming to 
step on him, with monstrous screams. Others told of nightmares in which 
they have seen creatures having heads of monsters. The prisoner 
becomes like someone who has lost his senses, and that is why they are 
usually attached to a chair before they are given the drug.
 
The Egyptians also use some other psychological methods referred to as 
"sense deprivation techniques". Of these methods one can mention for 
example the victim kept under total silence and obscurity, with periodic 
emission of ear-breaking noise and screams combined with blinding light. 
These screams are usually pre-recorded cries of those who were 
tortured before. The other technique consists of preventing the victim 
from his natural needs, such as relief himself in a toilet, or sleeping. 
Hocine Abderrahim was prevented from sleeping for 11 consecutive 
nights until he could no more remember his name.
 
The effect of all these methods combined lead to a feeling of de-
personnalization, a loss of identity, and total humiliation, which push 
hundreds of Algerians, most of them intellectuals to confess to crimes 
they have never committed.
 
So that these tortures end, this injustice stops. So that Algerians stop 
killing one another. So that Algeria returns to be the country of all Algerians 
regardless of the party which rules it. It is for all these reasons that 
we have decided to bring forth this testimony, and are willing testify in 
front of any international body.
 
Glory to Algeria,
Glory to our Martyrs.
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