News from Algeria 2007

[Al-khiyal]

May 28, 2007 -- On Sunday evening armed people kidnapped an Egyptian national working in a joint venture in Thla Alam in the wilaya of Tizi Ouzou, said well-informed sources.

The armed people got into the Egyptian’s office pretending that they were policemen. They took him to an unknown place, said the same sources.

According to close sources, 4 armed people carrying Kalashnikovs with them came at 11 p.m. to an area belonging to the joint venture in the region of Boukhalfa in Tizi Ouzou. They found Algerian workers and obliged them to lead them to the place of Egyptian workers.

Once arrived in the office of an Egyptian worker, the gunmen ordered the Algerians to leave and took the Egyptian to an unknown place.

The victim, 26, has worked in the joint venture as an engineer for 2 years. No one called the venture or the Egyptian embassy in Algiers to ask for ransom said well-informed sources.

It seems that the Egyptian worker was kidnapped by al-Qaida.

Egyptian engineer kidnapped by armed people in Tizi Ouzou

[Al-khiyal]

May 28, 2007 -- In Biskra (southern Algeria), a man tried to kidnap a girl called Zeineb and take her to Touggourt in the wilaya of Hassi Messoud (south). When he was arrested on May 12, investigations showed that he had also kidnapped two other children, Wael and Shaima, in April.

A reporter from Echorouk met the kidnapped children, their parents and the man who denounced the kidnapper. The reporter asked Zeineb’s father to tell him what’s happened.

“On May 12, my daughter Zeineb went to school as usual but she did not get home early. Then, her mother and I started to be concerned about her. I went to her school but I did not find her,” he said.

“Then, I came back home. After a short while, policemen came and asked me to go with them to a police station where I found my daughter. Later, I knew that someone tried to kidnap her,” he added.

The reporter asked him how the kidnapper managed to trap her. Zeineb’s father said the kidnapper told her he knew her father. Zeineb told Echorouk she left her school at 1 p.m. The kidnapper stopped her and asked her to accompany his daughter to school.

“He took me to a bus where he covered my face by a piece of textile. I asked him to take it off because it was hot”, said Zeineb.

Wael and Shaima were kidnapped by the same person

Echorouk’s reporter went to visit the two other kidnapped children, Wael and Shaima, at home.

“I and my sister left school and took the way to home. Later, we left home to buy copybooks from a nearby book shop. On our way a man asked us to accompany his daughter to school. We walked together for a while and we went to a taxi phone where he made a call asking for a girl named Abir and saying he was coming with two children to accompany her to school. When we arrived in a bus station he made another call,” Wael said.

“We got to a bus going to the south. Then, we arrived to a pizzeria where the kidnapper left his bag. Later, he took us to an abandoned house and we spent the night there,” he added.

Wael said on the following day, the kidnapper took them to another house. Later, they went to a third house where he asked the two children to wait for their father.

“We wait for a long time but no one came. Then, we left that house and met a young man who took us to the National Gendarmerie,” Wael said.

As for Shaima, she confirmed what her brother Wael said. She said the kidnapper threatened them using a knife and gave them some food to eat.

Their father told Echorouk her daughter asked him to give her money to buy a copybook. Then, she went with her brother to a book shop but they did not come back.

“Then, I started looking for them in the streets and the book shop but I did not find them. I went to a police station and asked policemen to look for my children. Then, I continued looking for them by car. When it was dark I was sure that something happened to them,” he said.

“On the following day, I went with my colleague to a troop of the National Gendarmerie. They received a call from another troop in the region of Touggourt saying my two children were found. Then, we went to Touggourt where I found them and came back to home”, he added.

Wael said he recognised the kidnapper among 15 men arrested by the National Gendarmerie.

How the kidnapper was arrested

The kidnapper who comes from Mila (northern Algeria) was going to take Zeineb to the south east. He took the child to a bus, said a man working in that bus.

According to this man, the kidnapper tried to hide the girl when two policemen passed by the bus. Then, he started to have doubts about him.

In the beginning he thought that Zeineb was the kidnapper’s daughter but she said he was not her father.

“I am with him because he promised me to buy a bicycle and sweets for me,” she told the man who works in the bus.

Then the man, who did not want to reveal his name, called the police and the suspect was arrested.

“I am proud of what I did that day and I thank Zeineb’s parents for their present”, he told Echorouk.

The kidnapper told the police the purpose of kidnapping children is to exploit them in smuggling precious metals to neighbouring countries throughout the east south.

Doctors confirmed that the kidnapped were neither beaten nor raped.

However, investigators are not convinced by what the kidnapper said. They discovered that the accused travelled abroad a lot especially to African countries such as Egypt, Jordan and South Africa.

3 children kidnapped by the same person

[Al-khiyal]

President Bouteflika pays a visit to Blida

Mardi 29 Mai 2007 -- C’est à un vrai marathon que s’est livré hier, le chef de l’Etat dans la wilaya de Blida lors de sa première sortie sur le terrain depuis le scrutin législatif du 17 mai. Sillonnant la wilaya d’est en ouest et du nord au sud, le chef de l’Etat a visité pas moins de 37 projets réceptionnés ou en cours de réalisation au bout desquels a été décidé le rallongement du budget de la wilaya de Blida par une enveloppe additionnelle complémentaire de 7,5 milliards de dinars, alloués essentiellement à la réalisation d’un projet de 2 000 logements pour la résorption de l’habitat précaire, l’amélioration des réseaux de voirie et de distribution d’eau, d’électricité et de gaz ainsi que des projets de réalisation d’équipements sportifs.

En inspectant les différents projets, le président de la République, contrairement à son habitude, s’est astreint à des orientations concises et à de brèves instructions à l’instar d’une récurrente incitation au respect des délais de réalisation des projets comme au site du projet du nouvel hôtel de l’homme d’affaire algérien Benzaïm qui ne doit pas excéder les 36 mois fixés préalablement, ou bien d’une invitation à un entretien continuel des projets déjà réalisés et leur maintien en bon état tel qu’au nouveau centre des affaires à Bab Dzaïr. Après un timide accueil à Bab Essebt, le chef de l’Etat s’offrira un véritable bain de foule à Mouzaïa où il a reçu un accueil populaire très chaleureux. M. Abdelaziz Bouteflika ne pourra alors que descendre de son véhicule pour s’adonner aux salutations et aux accolades d’usage le long des 500 mètres constituant le boulevard principal de la petite localité. Le chef de l’Etat s’offrira deux autres bains de foule aussi chaleureux.

Le premier à la nouvelle cité universitaire pour jeunes filles inaugurée par le chef de l’Etat et baptisée Baya Mahieddine où l’attendaient des centaines d’étudiantes en furie, qui ne cessaient de scander son nom, ce qui l’a obligé à s’attarder un long moment sur ce site. Un accueil similaire lui sera réservé à l’université Saad Dahleb où les étudiants se sont massés pour assister à l’inauguration de l’institut d’architecture. Le chef de l’Etat, qui a bien voulu aller saluer les étudiants très nombreux à l’attendre en cette fin d’après-midi, a certainement entendu une revendication qui fusait de partout : «Zidoulna el bourssa.» Les étudiants ne perdaient pas l’espoir de voir le chef de l’Etat prendre, à l’occasion de cette visite, la décision de revaloriser la bourse qui leur est attribuée et qui n’a pas augmenté d’un dinar depuis plus de 17 ans.

A noter que la wilaya de Blida a bénéficié d’un budget de développement de 112 milliards de dinars sur les 8 dernières années. Des investissements lourds, ne manqueront pas de préciser les nombreux ministres qui ont accompagné le chef de l’Etat dans cette visite de travail, qui ont connu une «évolution qualitative et quantitative dans la réalisation et dans la nature des projets sélectionnés». Le chef de l’Etat clôturera sa visite tard dans la soirée après l’avoir commencée le matin aux alentour de 8h30mn à l’hôpital Frantz Fanon où il avait doté le seul centre de médecine nucléaire, leader en son genre en Afrique et dans le Monde arabe de nouveaux équipements qui lui permettront de renforcer ses performances dans le traitement des différentes tumeurs. Aujourd’hui, il entamera une visite de deux jours dans la wilaya de Chlef.

Bouteflika entre bains de foule et inspection de projets à Blida

[Al-khiyal]

Egyptian engineer kidnapped by armed people in Tizi Ouzou

CAIRO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian national working for an Egyptian-Algerian company has been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in eastern Algeria, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

Amgad Wahba, 26, regional director of an Egyptian-Algerian company for trade and manufacture which is an affiliate of Egypt's Orascom Group, was abducted on Monday night near his residence in Tizi Ouzou in the eastern Algerian region of Kabylie, said the report.

Four gunmen, riding a car and clad in police uniform, stopped Wahba's car and abducted him, MENA quoted local sources as saying.

The kidnappers released Wahba's driver later. Security forces are still searching for his car. It is believed that he was kidnapped for ransom.

The abduction is the eighth of its kind since December 2005. Seven Algerians were also kidnapped for ransom before Wahba's abduction, but it was the first time that a foreigner was abducted, said MENA.

Egyptian national kidnapped in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

May 29, 2007 -- The Algerian authorities announced Monday they have disbanded most of the local Al-Qa'ida organization, the Algerian daily El-Khabar reported.

"Most of the Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in Algeria (the former Salafist Group for Call and Combat – GSPC), which has taken responsibility for the bombings in Boumerdès, Ain Defla, the Government's Palace, Bab Ezzouar and Constantine, is now dismembered," the Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told reporters on Monday.

According to Zarhouni, the majority of Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb 's cadres and leaders are known to the security authorities, including its leader Abu Mu'sab 'Abd Al-Wudoud. Many of them are also under arrest, the minister added.

The GSPC has transformed itself into Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb earlier this year, pledging allegiance to Osama Bin Laden. A recent wave of terror attacks in Algeria has claimed the lives of 33 people and has led a number of former GSPC leaders and cadres to publicly denounce these tactics.

Though not a political party, Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb has recently interfered in local politics, when its leader called on the Algerian people to boycott the May 17 parliamentary elections.

The elections were described by Abu Mu'sab as a "mockery." He called on the Algerian people to join him in the path of "holy war and sacrifice for the sake of Allah."

Algeria: We ‘dismembered’ most of local Al-Qa'ida

[Al-khiyal]

Début de la production des avions dans les usines russes :
Les Yak-130 livrables à l’armée de l’air à partir de 2008

IRKUTSK, May 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of the Irkut Corporation in 2008 will supply to the Russian Air Force the first six operational trainers Yak-130, Irkut President Oleg Demchenko told journalists on Thursday. The two-seat Yak-130 was designed by the OKB Yakovlev design bureau and is meant for the initial and advanced training of pilots. The plane’s aerodynamic configuration and parameters of its engine unit and systems make it possible to perform flight practically in all regimes characteristic of modern and perspective domestic and foreign warplanes, including Su-30, MiG-29, F-16.

In addition, the Yak can be used to practice the regimes of operational use of weapons of the air-to-air and air-to-surface type. The planes are capable of carrying of up to three tonnes of bombs and rockets on nine external load carrier points.

According to Demchenko, this operational trainer won in a tender of the Russian Air Force, which concluded a contract for the supply to it of 12 aircraft. In addition, 16 Yak-130 planes will be built for Algeria.

The Irkutsk Aviation Plant is known for the production of the Su-30 fighter jet of various modifications. It has also developed serial production of the Be-200 civilian amphibious planes. On the whole, the Irkut Corporation possesses a modern scientific-technical base corresponding to international standards, as well as highly qualified personnel numbering over 12,000 specialists. The portfolio of the corporation’s orders exceeds five billion US dollars.

[Al-khiyal]

Mardi 29 mai 2007 -- C’est ce qu’a affirmé M. Salah Bensebaïni, président du SNPSP, lors d’un point de presse tenu hier au siège du syndicat à Alger. Revenant à la charge, les praticiens relèvent une situation de crise entre le syndicat et le ministère de la Santé qui perdure.

Le dernier conflit, a rappelé le président du SNPSP, remonte à l’époque où le syndicat a décidé de faire grève les 6, 7 et 8 mai, à l’issue du conseil national tenu quelques jours auparavant. Après avoir déposé un préavis de grève, le SNPSP a été destinataire d’une convocation pour comparaître devant la justice, alors que le même jour les représentants du syndicat ont été conviés à une rencontre avec les responsables du ministère.

«Le jour même, le tribunal s’est prononcé sur la grève des trois jours, la jugeant illégale», a indiqué le Dr Bensebaïni. A la grande surprise des membres du syndicat qui ont reçu, hier encore, une notification par le biais d’un huissier après requête en référé au tribunal de Sidi M’hammed, dans l’après midi.

«Le ministère de la Santé a toujours recours à la justice pour casser le mouvement de grève, au lieu de trouver des solutions concrètes», a fait remarquer de son côté le Dr Merabet, secrétaire général du même syndicat. Celui-ci a tenu à relever que tant qu’il n’y aura pas de propositions aux revendications de la part du ministère, «nous nous battrons jusqu’à leur satisfaction», a-t-il affirmé.

Soulignons au passage que les principales revendications des praticiens de la santé publique sont la revalorisation des différentes primes, notamment celle de la garde qui reste dérisoire à leurs yeux. Cette prime varie actuellement entre 680 dinars pour les médecins généralistes et 700 dinars pour les spécialistes.

M. Merabet estime que cette prime doit au moins atteindre 3 000 dinars. En ce qui concerne le désistement des logements de fonction, les patriciens exhortent les responsables à appliquer le décret exécutif signé en juin dernier par le chef du gouvernement.

Interrogé sur la nouvelle application de la carte sanitaire à l’horizon 2009, le SNPSP estime que celle-ci «a été élaborée sans la concertation et l’association du partenaire social». Estimant que cette nouvelle carte a été élaborée «hâtivement», les membres du bureau national interpellent le président de la République pour une intervention.

Ils soutiennent qu’«on ne peut pas faire de politique sanitaire sans associer les premiers concernés». Dans ce contexte, ces praticiens signalent que cette carte a induit une nouvelle orientation du personnel médical et paramédical.

L’un des membres a cité à titre d’exemple le secteur sanitaire d’El-Harrach qui couvre cinq communes, et qui sera érigé comme salle de soins dès la mise en place de la carte.

Malgré les pressions judiciaires : Les médecins de la santé publique entament une grève ouverte