News from Algeria 2007

[Al-khiyal]

TUNIS, Tunisia: A 27-year-old Tunisian was convicted Thursday of belonging to an Algerian terrorist group and sentenced to 11 years in prison, the man's lawyer said.

Zied Ghodhbane was arrested in neighboring Algeria in May, 2005. A Tunis court found him guilty of belonging to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, his lawyer, Samir Ben Amor, said. The GSPC is the main insurgency movement in Algeria, and has links to al-Qaida.

Ghodhbane — who was returned to Tunisian custody following his arrest — denied the charges, insisting he had traveled to Algeria for his studies. His lawyer called interrogations by Tunisian police "irregular," alleging that Ghodhbane had been tortured in police custody.

The court also sentenced two other men, both Tunisian nationals, to two years in prison in the case, Ben Amor said. One was convicted on charges that he financed Ghodhbane's trip to Algeria after he gave the 27-year-old 50 dinars (€30, US$38). The other man was convicted for "attempting to join a terrorist organization," Ghodhbane's lawyer said.

The two men were tried in absentia after they failed to show up for proceedings.

The trial follows two deadly clashes in past weeks between Islamist extremists and Tunisian security forces. At least 14 people, including two security officers, were killed in the second shootout January 3 in Soliman, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital, Tunis. Fifteen people were arrested.

Last week, Tunisian Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem said those in the January 3 clash were "Salafist terrorists," in reference to the hardline Salafist movement among Muslim fundamentalists. Authorities had earlier referred to the group as simply "criminals."

Tunisian court convicts man for belonging to Algerian terror group

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Norway's embassy in Tunisia will be moved to Algeria following a request from Statoil, which has invested NOK billions in Algeria the past few years.

This is reported by the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv.

Undersecretary of State at the Foreign Office, Sven Svedman says the embassy move has been planned for some time.

"We have economic interests in oil and gas, particularly in Algeria and Libya. Statoil is an important part of this," Svedman says.

Norway moves embassy to Algeria

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L’escale du président Ahmadinejad à Alger annulée

Tehran, Jan 19, IRNA - - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has in a message to his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika expressed hope for visiting Algeria next month.

In the message, President Ahmadinejad also deplored his failure to visit the country, which was to take place last Tuesday.

He said talks with the Algerian officials would provide another suitable opportunity for promotion of bilateral ties and investigation of important regional and global developments with an aim for peace and justice.

Ahmadinejad hopeful of visiting Algeria next month

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Head of Salafist Group in Europe surrenders

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At night, Algiers sparkles with a thousand and one lights, but it also has its darker side. This opulent-looking city is finding it harder and harder to conceal its outcasts, who have nowhere but the streets to take refuge. The homeless are now an everyday feature of urban décor in the Algerian capital. The security and economic crises through which Algeria struggled in the 1990s have amplified a previously marginal phenomenon.

SAMUSOCIAL Algiers is trying to relieve the distress of these vulnerable people and offer them a new chance to reintegrate into normal life.

Magharebia talked to Mustapha Alilat, Director of SAMUSOCIAL Algiers.

Magharebia: What is SAMUSOCIAL Algiers, and what is its chief mission?

Alilat: SAMUSOCIAL Algiers is a public establishment created by the wilaya of Algiers in 1999. It's the first establishment of its kind in Algeria and in Africa. The aim is to come to the help of the poorest, most vulnerable people, the rejects, those who have lost all hope of one day being returned to their place in society. This is a mobile emergency aid service.

This concept was first used in France in 1993 by Xavier Emmanuelli. Mobile teams work on the ground, combing the streets to meet up with homeless people.

SAMUSOCIAL acts as the first stage in finding homes for these people and checking their health, carrying out medical and psychosocial assessments. It also provides treatment and monitoring of social stabilisation over the short term, as part of a general process of reintegration into society.

Magharebia: What has caused these people to be living in the margins of society?

Alilat: The reasons behind this marginal life can be of various kinds. Firstly, there are the successive waves of migration seen in Algiers over recent years, and which the city cannot absorb. The vast majority of people for whom we have records have arrived from other wilayas – roughly 90% of them. You also see the effects of rushed urbanisation, the housing set-up, which is intended for single families, the exhaustion of the traditional support networks, with the family no longer playing a role in providing socially for the most vulnerable (orphans, widows, divorcees, he handicapped), insecurity, the housing crisis, unemployment, etc.. The capital represents a hope of social success. It offers conditions where one can be anonymous, financially autonomous, with the advantages of a large city, but it can also turn out to be a trap for the least privileged.

Magharebia: How do you find those people who need this emergency assistance?

Alilat: This identification task is carried out through our teams' patrols. The patrol formula consists of going to meet these people where they are. Several multidisciplinary and professional teams move through the streets of Algiers day and night to make contact with the homeless. The mobile assistance team (EMA) comprises a psychologist, a nurse, a social worker and a driver. At least one member of the team is a woman, which makes it easier to approach the women. The teams establish contact with these people, evaluate their situation and take the first steps in caring for them. The EMAs can also be sent out on the basis of information submitted by individuals or institutions via a simple telephone call. A request may also be lodged by the persons concerned themselves.

The mobile medical teams are also responsible for taking emergency cases to hospital, offering preventive care and medical cover, and dispensing first aid.

Between January and November 2006, our mobile teams carried out 3,450 sorties.

Magharebia: How do you provide care for people within your centre?

Alilat: The SAMUSOCIAL emergency shelter offers three kinds of care: simple emergency housing, which is an arrangement enabling the person taken in to exchange their cardboard boxes for a real bed, a hot bath, a change of clothes and a meal. Then there is emergency shelter with nursing and psychological care for those who need medical attention, and finally accommodation for psychiatric cases.

We also have an area for educational and recreational activities, as well as a space set aside for children and young people, aimed at 6-14 year olds.

Magharebia: Winter can be cruel for homeless people. Do you have a special programme to help them through this season?

Alilat: Naturally, we increase our efforts during the winter period. There are 16 teams on the move, working in turn day and night, with at least four teams in the field at all times. As for accommodation, SAMUSOCIAL only has one centre at the moment, in Dely Brahim, with a capacity of 200. This December, we recorded a level of occupation nearing 130%.

From January to November 2006, we took in 2,268 people, of whom 1,502 were men, 626 were women and 140 were children. [This year], we expect to be looking after at least 3,500 people, of whom 1,950 will be men, 1,100 women and 450 children. The period during which our work is intensified runs from November to April. This represents around 75% of cases in which we become involved.

Magharebia: What are the problems you encounter in your everyday work, within the centre, but also on your patrols?

Alilat: We work with a very fragile population. Social workers need to use a great deal of patience, perseverance, tact and professionalism to teach them the basic rules of living in society once more, so as to make a distinction between the world of the streets and the world of society. This social stabilisation phase is crucial, because this is where the person displays the greatest resistance which may take the form of violence and difficult behaviour towards themselves, others living there, and social workers.

Magharebia: Do you work alongside other institutions or agencies who can add to the support you offer?

Alilat: SAMUSOCIAL is by definition and establishment which offers emergency assistance and it is natural that this activity should be followed up by post-emergency work. The people taken in by SAMUSOCIAL will have a short stay of 1 to 30 days at the Dely-Brahim centre, according to their psychosocial profile. At the end of this stay, SAMUSOCIAL guides them towards social and family reintegration or an institutional placement in relay centres which take over the post-emergency stage of their care and offer them educational support. These centres are also come under the wilaya of Algiers.

But we sometimes encounter difficulties in offering placements, due essentially to places not being available. And so we face a situation of overcrowding, with record occupancy levels reaching 180% for women and children and 165% for men.

Magharebia: How is your operation sustained financially?

Alilat: At present, the only source of finance comes from the wilaya of Algiers, which covers all the operating and equipment needs of SAMUSOCIAL, but we also receive gifts from other sources -- public and private organisations, institutions and individuals.. By way of example, I could tell you that the latest, in December 2006, was given by his Excellency the German ambassador, who gave SAMUSOCIAL a financial gift to allow us to buy 300 blankets. This help is increasing in scale, and this is why we are thinking about setting up a supporter network. It must be remembered that SAMUSOCIAL Algiers is part of the international Samusocial organisation, which has head offices in Paris and to which we are tied by co-operation agreements.

Magharebia: On the basis of your experience, do you think that the phenomenon of homeless people is growing, as most people think?

Alilat: Not only is this phenomenon growing, but it is affecting more and more sectors of the population who have been spared it for a long time. There is an urgent need for all agencies working in the field of social support to join their efforts to combat this scourge more effectively. It is true that a great nation is judged by how it treats its weakest people.

Magharebia: Do you have any particular projects to improve the assistance on offer?

Alilat: As far as SAMUSOCIAL Algiers is concerned, we are planning to set up two structures in 2008 to back up our general care arrangements. Firstly, the call and control centre, with a toll-free number accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This free number will allow individuals, institutions and other organisations to report a social emergency situation concerning homeless people.

Next, the SAMUSOCIAL observatory, which will be a structure comprising a multidisciplinary team specialising in sociology, psychology, medicine, educational methods and statistics. They will conduct operations to provide a periodic census of the homeless population and will if necessary launch more detailed studies in partnership with universities and specialist research centres. The better we understand this phenomenon, the more appropriate our solutions will be.

Helping the homeless of Algiers

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The first 10 months of last year saw more than 270,000 Chinese workers going abroad to work, the People's Daily overseas edition reported.

Currently, about 4 million Chinese workers, or 0.3 percent of the country's population, are working in foreign countries, the newspaper said.

They are living a very different and difficult life, far from home and family members.

Their security and living conditions have raised concern at home and abroad.

In a recent incident, five Chinese telecom workers were kidnapped in Nigeria. Although they were released safely on Wednesday, the general living and working conditions of Chinese workers in that country has raised worry.

There are more than 300 Chinese companies running businesses in Nigeria, involved such fields as petroleum, household appliances, and cell phones.

A worker, surnamed Zhang, working for a Chinese telecom company in Nigeria, told People's Daily that his job always required him to work outdoors.

He could not be sure of having three square meals a day, or even a daily bath. Worse, malaria was a common disease among his colleagues.

Besides their work, they also had to engage in public relations activities with the local communities.

In big cities like Lagos, due to bad road conditions, frequent power blackouts, and few public places of entertainment for the Chinese, most workers chose not to go out in the evenings, the newspaper said.

Chinese workers can also be found in war-stricken countries.

In Baghdad, capital of Iraq, there are about 20 telecom workers besides the Chinese diplomatic staff. Hundreds of Chinese workers are also in the Kurdistan area of north Iraq.

Most of them are working for a Norwegian oil company in exploration work. They receive a monthly salary of about $1,000 and are under the protection of the Kurdistan military, making it difficult for them to socialize with the local community.

Alegria too has a large number of Chinese workers.

Peng Guichen, in charge of labor services in Algeria under the China State Construction International Group, told People's Daily there are more than 9,000 workers. Most of them were skilled, like electrical engineers, carpenters and bricklayers.

"The reason they are working here is very simple - to make money," Peng told the newspaper.

The monthly salaries ranged from US$400 to US$800.

The number of Chinese workers going abroad has steadily increased since 2003, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Chinese workers face tough times abroad

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- Algerian Minister of Employment and National Integrity Djamal Ould Abbas said here Friday three million mines left behind the French army during the French occupation of Algeria are still buried on the eastern and western Algerian border.

Addressing a forum on social solidarity for anti-personal mine victims and the handicapped, the Algerian minister said of 11 million mines planted by the French army during the French occupation of Algeria, eight million were removed.

He hailed the gathering as aiming to improve the living conditions of anti-personnel mine victims and to save the residents of those areas which are still in danger due to mines planted there.

To help anti-personnel mine victims and the handicapped, human, financial and material potential need to be provided, Abbas said, adding that "Algeria has exerted, and is still exerting, great efforts to set up medical treatment centers for anti-personnel mine victims, and to help them re-adapt to their earlier functions and reintegrate them socially and professionally." Algeria was one of the first countries which signed a treaty banning the use, storage, production and transportation of anti-personnel mines on December 3, 1997, and then endorsed it on April 9, 2001, he said. The treaty was put in effect as of April 1st, 2002.

For his part, Canadian Ambassador in Algeria Robert W. Peck, who attended the forum, hailed the key role played by Algeria in organizing workshops aiming to apply the important aspects of the Ottawa Agreement which bans the use of anti-personnel mines.

He also hailed the country for catering for mine victims and the handicapped through an ambitious project covering their diverse needs and boosting their capabilities.

The forum, organized in cooperation with Handicap International, which provides care for the handicapped, comes within the framework of applying the Ottawa Agreement which bans the use of anti-personnel mines.

Algeria suffers from three million mines left behind by French army