After deadly attacks in Algeria: 'Life goes on'

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, December 14, 2007: Farid Senoussi was slicing the air in front of his own throat, but describing the fate of the sheep he is selling for next week's feast of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to Allah.

"Next Wednesday they will all die, their throats slit, inshallah," Senoussi said from a former workshop that is now one of countless places in the capital selling the bleating creatures. It is an incongruous sight among the towering housing blocks and busy boulevards of Algiers.

By the day of rest on Friday, residents of all backgrounds seemed determined to go about their lives as usual, and not allow "the events" to rob their enthusiasm ahead of the holiday. That is the phrase that is used here to refer to the twin suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed dozens of people.

As mothers, some veiled, others in high heels and Western attire, huddled in small groups to exchange gossip, children and fathers haggled with Senoussi and other traders expertly touting their merchandise.

"Where you come from, the children choose the Christmas tree. Here it's the same with the sheep," said Muhammad Mounir, an employee of the state-owned gas company Sonatrach, who patiently allowed his daughter to pull him over to her selection. The girl, Rabaissa, 8, was sizing up a ram with majestically curved horns. "That one? That one?" she asked.

Weighing about 45 kilograms, or 100 pounds, the ram will cost him 20,000 dinar, or about $300, and yield 20 kilograms of meat. Next Wednesday, Mounir will say a prayer, place the ram facing Mecca and slit its throat, before it is cooked for the feast.

"These are privileged sheep, they are lucky to be sacrificed," said Senoussi, a 60-year-old biologist who has worked in California and Canada and now adds to his pension by breeding sheep.

Then he turned serious. "You see, people have become blasé, they have got used to the bombs," he said. "What can you do? Life goes on."

Across town, three young businessmen were chatting on the sprawling terrace of the Tontonville, a 19th-century colonial-style coffeehouse whose customers are said to have included Charlie Chaplin and Che Guevara. The bomb attacks, the police controls, such things "become part of the routine," said Karim Ait, a radiologist. "You learn to work around it."

"But the bureaucracy." He rolled his eyes. "If you think France is bureaucratic, you haven't seen anything yet."

Malek Issad, an engineer, piped in, saying: "We call it bureaucratic terrorism." Issad trained in Algeria and France and set up his own information technology company a few years ago and divides his time between Algiers and Paris.

As every Friday, Issad, Ait and a third friend, Karim Azouaou, were having afternoon tea at the Tontonville, a meeting place for the capital's artistic and intellectual elite, and a charming spot next to the majestic National Theater and overlooking the turquoise bay. "People come here to talk," said Hafid Bouchouchi, another friend in the group whose family has run the Tontonville since Algerian independence from France in 1962.

"They talk about everything, especially football and politics. Algerians are crazy about politics," he said. "For every 10 Algerians, you get 10 opinions."

Their criticisms of bureaucracy did not extend to the full government itself. Better this government than the Islamists, they said.

Several newspapers and television talk shows, they said, have been critical of the way the government has been handling terrorism. The media has attacked the program of national reconciliation that has been offering an amnesty to terrorists from the civil war of the 1990s who turn themselves in. One of the suicide bombers on Tuesday benefited form such an amnesty.

Ahead of the last presidential elections in 2004, the country's best-known cartoonist, Ali Dilem, who works for the independent newspaper Liberté, repeatedly made fun of the head of state and the country's unfree voting. One cartoon showed the president's face on a typical campaign poster but instead of "Vote for Him," it said, "Get rid of Him."

Dilem has since faced pressure from the government to tone down his criticism, journalists at his newspaper said. Still, Bouchouchi said that in his opinion freedom of expression is even more curtailed across the borders in Morocco and Tunisia.

"That is the big difference between Algeria and every other Arab country: People can say more or less what they like," he explained. "The problem is that the government takes no notice of what they are saying."

Far away from the pristine waterfront of French Algiers, the ancient Muslim neighborhood of El-Harrach in the eastern part of the city is best known for two things: its sprawling Friday market and the capital's most notorious prison.

Like every Friday, families of inmates were gathering outside the fortress-like prison structure with baskets of food. And like every Friday, people were streaming into the "souk," a vast area of stalls offering everything from rare spices to electronics to car parts.

"There is nothing you cannot buy here," vowed Abdelkader Mimouri, who has been selling lentils, beans and tomatoes here every Friday for 10 years.

Shower heads? "Over there!"

PlayStations? "No problem, two stalls on."

Italian coffee machines? "To the right."

But behind the daily bustle and joyous weekend atmosphere, the traces of the bloody struggle that has pitched Algeria's army-backed government against Islamic militants for the past 15 years are hard to ignore.

One of the two suicide bombers in the attacks on Tuesday had spent two years in El-Harrach prison.

Among the compact discs on sale in one stall is a work by the Rai musician Cheb Hasni, who was killed by insurgents in 1994. Next to it is a stall selling mobile phone chips for 10 dinar. "That's how the terrorists avoid tracing - they buy a chip for each phone conversation," says one man matter-of-factly.

Many of the vendors in the market benefited from the government's policy of national reconciliation. "They turned themselves in and had nothing to do," explained another man, "so the government gave them stalls on the market."

The tension remains bottled up. But every once in a while the recent memory of the bombings on Tuesday surfaced in a heated conversation.

"Terrorists? What does that mean? We are talking about his brother, about my brother. They are normal people," said one bearded man, who sold watches and sunglasses and only identified himself as Moussa.

Another man took a different view: "And the victims? They are also our brothers."

Around 12:30 p.m. the first call to prayer sounds along the sweeping curve of the Bay of Algiers and the streets begin to empty. Cafés and restaurants close as crowds of people make their way to the nearest of the many mosques in the city.

Assia Fathia and her 17-year-old son Dadi are among those head for the New Mosque, a monument on the Square of Martyrs that commemorates the victims of Algeria's war of independence from France.

"Those were real martyrs. They died for the country," Fathia said. "The so-called martyrs that blow themselves up these days are not worthy of the name."

This Friday the sermons were focused on Eid, on the meaning of religious sacrifice and the correct slaughter of the sheep. But the ancient calls for sacrifice and forgiveness take on a new meaning after the suicide attacks, which left 37 dead by official count of the government, which called off further searches for bodies on Friday. Other estimates are higher; the United Nations said it now lists 17 of its workers in the death toll.

"We are all touched by this as Algerians and as Muslims," Fathia said.

After deadly attacks in Algeria: 'Life goes on'

[Bent_Bladi]

eh wallah .... life goes on

[Al-khiyal]

Algerians relive painful memories of December 11th attacks

December 10, 2008 -- One year on from the tragic attacks of December 11th, 2007, Algerians are reliving painful memories of the twin bombings that targeted the Constitutional Council in Ben Aknoun and the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Hydra, leaving 41 dead and 170 injured.

Life has returned to normal in the affected areas. Repairs have been completed, restoring their former vitality, but local residents have not forgotten what happened. Their accounts of the attacks are charged with much emotion, anger and bewilderment.

In Ben Aknoun, life in local universities, the Supreme Court, the National School of Magistracy and the Judges' Residence came to a standstill on that fateful day.

Nora, a law school student, retold what happened with emotion barely kept in check. "I'll never forget that noise, that smell," she said, before casting her mind back to how the day began.

"It should have been just another day, but the terrorists decided otherwise. Like any other day, I took the bus to the university. Right after we got off there was a deafening noise. The ground shook beneath my feet. At first I thought it was an earthquake. It took me a few minutes to realise what had happened – my friends were running around in all directions and shouting that a bomb had gone off. I don't know how I managed to run to where we were going. What I saw was horrible, terrifying."

"There were people screaming and a smell of burnt flesh," she said. "There was smoke. When I saw the bus carrying the charred bodies of students, it was just too much. I think I lost my cool; I remember screaming, screaming so loud I think I must have fainted. I don't know who got me to the university."

One year later, Nora still feels shock and disappointment over the attacks. "What strikes me most of all is that I really thought the introduction of the national reconciliation policy meant that we would never again have to live through the horrors of the past," she said. "I thought the worst was behind us."

"On that day, I thought the Algerian government should never have extended the hand of friendship towards terrorists. I am still firmly convinced that forgiveness is not the answer. Terrorism has to be stamped out, period," she concluded.

A few metres away from the rebuilt Constitutional Council, traders inside the shopping centre are still feeling the effects of the attack. As a tribute to the victims, they renamed the market to the 11 December Centre.

Majid, the manager of a clothing boutique, told Magharebia that on the day after the attacks, people banded together to clear up and reopen the shops as quickly as possible. "We were very touched. A lot of shops were destroyed. Others were almost completely wrecked, but we had to do all we could to reopen them. That was our answer to the terrorists. They had to realise that life is stronger than the death that they wanted to spread," he said.

"By helping each other we were able to open up again quickly and life went on, even though deep down we knew that things had changed. We lost friends and saw nightmarish scenes, but despite all that we believe in the future of Algeria," concluded the manager.

In Hydra, the residential district in which UN offices were targeted, people are also taking stock of the past. Saleha, who lives on a small street in the area that was hit, recounted her memories to Magharebia. "What threw me the most was the fact that the attack happened in an area where there was security," she said. "There are a lot of institutions and embassies here. When you live in an area like that, you think you're safe from everything."

"The eleventh of December took away my confidence in all this. I saw people dying. We watched the rescue operations for hours on end. We didn't sleep," she continued.

"There was a real spirit of solidarity, but that in no way lessened the pain I felt. Though I don't want to justify other attacks, I wonder why they targeted people who were just doing their jobs. Where did all this hatred come from?"

She said of her life since the bombings: "You know, my life has really changed. I've become suspicious and the slightest noise startles me now."

Echoing Nora's sentiment, Saleha said her view of terrorism will never change. "Terrorists don't deserve a second chance; when they drove their truck laden with explosives towards the UN offices, they gave innocent people no chance of survival."

[Bent_Bladi]

Allah yer7am kul el muslimeen, may the families of the victims be blessed with patience and peace