Officially, a growing list of countries has denounced the almost nightly killings. The toll since 1992, when the government canceled a general election in which radical Islamists held a commanding lead, is believed to be 80,000. A fresh wave of bloodshed has brought to more than 1,000 the number killed in the last two weeks alone, including 62 announced Wednesday by the security services in Algiers. That's the perfect question. Obviously we think that's a bad miscalculation,'' he said.
Any solution requires working with the Algerian government.
Algeria is a vast country, a regional power with important petroleum resources, one that most other states hope will prevail in its struggle against Islamic extremism, even while many have expressed concerns about the way that government is approaching the problem. Some observers say the government is a part of the problem, at least tacitly accepting the violence in hopes it will spur public rejection of the extremists. Without the consent of the Algerian government, or of the extremists, for that matter, there is almost nothing the international community can do ''unless it is willing to forcibly go in and make peace,'' said a former U.S. official involved in the Burundi peace-making effort. Other European countries, as well as the United States, have generally left it up to France to take the lead in the matter. The French, scorched by Algerian official reaction and fearful of the threat of terrorism on their own soil, as well as the prospect of an increasing flow of Algerian immigrants, have been wary of taking that lead.