When we go to Europe and the United States, and we talk to the politicians, they say they can do nothing. They cannot interfere. Salima backs AI's call for the immediate appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Algeria, and an international investigation to determine responsibility for the massacres and other human rights abuses. But those who want such international action face two problems. Europe, and the world in general, is more interested in buying Algerian oil and Algerian gas, than in acting to protect the Algerian people and develop democracy'.
Algerian officials can be polite, well dressed, and speak five languages.
But that does not mean they are democrats. Go to the cemetery. Go to see the mother of the dead policeman, the mother of the murdered Islamist, the mothers of sons caught in the conflict. If the people do not stand up to protect human rights, no-one will. But the next step will be felt in the democracies.