Algerian Military Linked to Massacres of Civilians

A British newspaper said Sunday that it had unearthed fresh evidence that some of the massacres in Algeria were the work of military security forces.

The Observer quoted two Algerian police officers seeking asylum in Britain as saying that, under orders, they took part in the slaughter and torture of civilians.

“I have done everything: murder, torture. If you cut someone’s throat in front of me right now, I would say that is normal, normal,” one of the former officers was quoted as saying.

The defectors told the newspaper that special forces disguised as fundamentalists, with beards and Muslim dress, killed entire families by night as part of their regime of death and destruction.

Algeria blames Muslim rebels for the ongoing violence.

Mainly civilians have died in the Islamic uprising that began after Algeria’s army canceled legislative elections in 1992. The move blocked a victory by Muslim fundamentalists who had campaigned against the country’s secular, Westernized social system.

The allegations are the latest to suggest state involvement in the massacres sweeping Algeria, whose civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead.

The Observer said the two men gave detailed evidence of the state’s involvement in a range of human rights abuses: massacre by military security death squads, torture of the government’s opponents, spying, and the murders of journalists and popular entertainers.

Meanwhile, Algerian security forces said 11 people were killed overnight Saturday by a “terrorist group” in Bouira province, in the latest carnage that has marked the holy month of Ramadan.

In an Algerian news agency statement, the security services said one wounded person survived. The killings--which took place in Bordj Okhriss, about 50 miles southeast of the capital, Algiers--followed the slaughter of as many as 1,000 people since Ramadan began Dec. 30.