Bomb blasts in Algeria

A call from concerned Algerian citizens  to citizens' organizations,
progressive parties and unions in Europe

 

Today December 11, 2007, Algiers was devastated by two bomb blasts. The first reports claim 26 dead and 177 wounded. According to press reports, Al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for these attacks.

 

After a decade of murder and terror in the nineties that made 200 000 victims,  the Algerian people are exhausted.

Yet this new escalation in violence is no surprise to us. In spite - or because - of the blanket amnesty officially labeled a 'reconciliation' policy  - i.e. an overall presidential pardon granted without even establishing facts and responsibilities -, Islamic armed groups never surrendered arms, and 'pardoned' perpetrators paraded in villages, threatening  their opponents and the survivors of their atrocities again, forbidding music, controlling 'morality' and imposing gender apartheid.

 

For a long time, in Algeria as well as in other Muslim countries,  European and North American governments led by their interest in gas entertained the most ambiguous relations with the extreme right political forces working under the cover of Islam.

 

But for a long time too, the vast majority of progressive parties and organizations in Europe and North America, as well as progressives in Asia and Africa and the anti globalization movement, refused to  distance  themselves from these same extreme right forces, under the pretext of defending the rights of the oppressed.

We are numerous, in Algeria as well as in other Muslim countries and in the North African diaspora, to oppose the theocratic project of Islamic armed groups ( i.e. the law of God as interpreted by extreme right religious forces), and to stand for a secular republic ( i.e. the laws of the people that can be changed by the will and vote of the people). But we fought this battle virtually without support from  those in the international community who should have been our allies.

 

On the eve of yet another battle against theocratic extreme right Islamic armed groups in Algeria, we call on citizens' organizations, progressive parties and unions, human rights groups and all concerned citizens in Europe and beyond, to extend direct immediate and sustained political support to all progressive forces, parties, unions, people's organizations, and women's organizations working for a secular republic in Algeria.

Reach out to these forces, network with them, exchange with them. They/we need support and visibility.

It is an illusion to think that this theocratic project will stop at your borders. Supporting those who are on the front line ultimately serves the interest of democratic freedom in the world.

 

First signatories:

SIAWI,  Secularism Is A Women's Issue ( siawi.org)

Marieme Helie Lucas, Founder of WLUML, coordinator SIAWI, Montpellier

Hakim Arabdiou, Paris

Selim Ducos, Paris

Lalia Ducos,women human rights defender, Paris

Cherifa Kheddar, president Djazairouna, Blida

Amir Rezzoug, photographe, Marseille

Saleha Larab, journalist, Alger

Samia Allalou, journalist, Paris

Mohamed Ali Allalou, animateur radio, Paris

Aziz Smati, film director, Paris

Karima Bennoune, Associate Professor Rutgers School of Law, Newark

Malika Zouba, journalist, Paris

Mohamed Sifaoui, journalist, Paris

Asma Guenifi, psychologist, Paris