Would anyone who believes in Allah (swt), His Messenger Muhammad (saw), and the Last Day fight and kill innocent Muslims? He would not have gone on a killing spree slaughtering, burning and disembowelling women, pregnant women, children and the elderly. Would Muslims who call for the implementation of the Shariah laws commit such atrocities?

Eyewitness accounts of violence and terror

A recent interview with the author of a book called ‘The Dirty War’ (La Découverte; 204 pages) has been making waves of controversy in France and Algeria. The back cover shows him in 1992 as a fresh-faced young second lieutenant, proudly wearing the uniform of an Algerian parachute regiment.

His book provides a firsthand account of life within the Algerian army as it wages a brutal civil war. For the first time, 31 year old Habib Souaïdia, a member of the Special Forces in Algeria -- which, along with the Secret Service, have had exclusive responsibility for anti-terrorist operations since the outbreak of hostilities in 1992 -- provides detailed corroboration of rumours that have been circulating for years: that many crimes attributed to Islamic terrorists were in fact the work of the armed forces. “The generals are up to their necks in killing, and their motive is to hang onto power and the oil revenues and business commissions that go with it," Souaïdia claims. "The real problem in Algeria isn't Islamic fundamentalism, it's injustice.”

As a volunteer in the Algerian army's airborne élite, he found himself drafted into the newly formed “anti-subversion” forces late in 1992. The country had been rocked by terrorist violence after the military high command that year cancelled the second round of legislative elections to block an inevitable victory by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

Souaïdia arrived at his new posting at Béni-Messous near Algiers resolved to serve his country by combating a terrorist threat to public order. He soon discovered that the reality of army operations was far removed from his ideals. He describes how one night in March 1993, he was ordered to escort a truckload of paratroops to the village of Douar Ez-Zaatria, a pro-FIS stronghold. Souaïdia and his men waited for the truck on the outskirts of the village and escorted it back to base when it returned an hour later. A soldier he knew climbed out and, seeing Souaïdia, drew a bloodstained dagger across his throat. In the morning, the papers announced that a terrorist attack had left 12 dead in Zaatria that night.

At the end of that month, Souaïdia's unit was transferred to Lakhdaria -- 70 km east of Algiers -- and a new billet in a villa dating from the colonial era. Five cells had been installed on the ground floor. In his book, Souaïdia paints a grisly picture of suspected Islamic sympathizers being systematically arrested, tortured and killed. Their corpses were left in the surrounding countryside and the crimes were attributed to terrorist violence. Souaïdia claims to have watched as a 15-year-old boy was drenched in fuel and burned alive. “Everyone taken there was tortured and liquidated,” he says. “They were forced to drink bleach, tortured with electricity, set upon by dogs and attacked with axes. As far as the generals were concerned, all Islamic sympathizers were terrorists and had to be physically eliminated.”

He alleges that terrorist groups are infiltrated and manipulated by the Algerian secret service, enabling the military high command to portray itself as the last rampart against bloodthirsty lawlessness. That thesis may sound farfetched, but it has convinced respected figures like Ferdinando Imposimato -- honorary vice president of Italy's High Court of Appeal — who contributed a preface.

The Massacres

One of the most horrible massacres, in six years of violence in Algeria, took place on the night between the 28th and 29th of August 1997. Over 300 people were murdered, all of them residents of Sidi Rais near Sidi Moussa on the outskirts of the capital. Most of the victims were pregnant women, babies, and the elderly. They were slaughtered, disembowelled, and burned. In addition, more than 40 girls and women were kidnapped and later raped, then murdered.

Preceding this massacre and following it, other massacres were committed in areas around the capital in the town of Beni Ali, in Upper Blida, and in the town of Ma’ alba near Ain Defla. Over 100 people were killed in these massacres and over 50 women were kidnapped, and later raped then murdered. All of the victims were slaughtered with swords, knives and cleavers. Pregnant women had their wombs ripped open and their insides pulled out. Anyone trying to escape was shot. Houses and corpses were burned.

The Algerian government and its supporters attribute these massacres to ‘terrorists’, the term they use for activists of Islamic movements. The Islamic movements, of which the FIS is most prominent, along with leaders of several opposition parties, accuse the Algerian government’s security services of masterminding these massacres.

Did the Islamic Movements kill the Muslims?
Let us examine the facts about the killings in Sidi Rais near Sidi Moussa, in August 1997:




The areas where many of the massacres occurred are also a major base area of the Algerian army and security forces. These areas are the provinces surrounding the capital, such as Blida, Ain Defla, and Medea. More than 60,000 army and security personnel are stationed there. This would make it very difficult for large anti-government groups to move through these areas and commit massacres that last for several hours.

Army and security forces were stationed at a distance of no more than one kilometer from the site of the massacre, yet these forces arrived only after the massacre was over and the criminals had fled. This could only happen if the criminal terrorist groups were acting in concert with the security forces. The terrorist groups carried out their four-hour massacre with ease and fled before the security forces reached them, although they are in areas teeming with army and security personnel.

These massacres occurred in areas which openly support of the Islamic movements. Including this, they supported FIS during the 1991 elections.
It is also worth noting that no massacre or terrorist operation has occurred in the area of Club Des Pines, turned recently into a high-class city on the outskirts of the capital. It is there that government officials, army chiefs and pro-government party leaders reside.

Some strange accounts were reported on the authority of physicians working in hospitals where the dead and wounded are received. These reports state that: “Some of the dead from those who commit these horrible massacres were not circumcised”. Yet, circumcision is standard for all males in Algeria, who are Muslims!

The Algerian government failed to reveal the truth about these atrocities. It failed to conduct any serious investigations to find the perpetrators. They left the matter deliberately wrapped in a shroud of mystery.



These observations rule out the possibility of Islamic groups perpetrating these horrible massacres for several reasons. First of all, it is inconceivable that the Islamic groups would kill the inhabitants of the areas that support them, have supported them during elections, and from which comes most of the supporters for these Islamic groups.

Also, it is highly unlikely that the army and the security forces, which have such a dense presence in these areas, would allow the Islamic groups such wide latitude of movement. It is inconceivable that the army and security forces would allow these massacres to be perpetrated for several hours and not move in to catch the criminals in their act. Had the Islamic groups had this freedom of movement within the dense presence of the army and the security forces, they would have attacked the Club Des Pines area where their real enemies reside Government officials, army and security chiefs, and leaders of political parties associated with the government.

Furthermore, the presence of uncircumcised individuals among those perpetrating these massacres shows that those who commit the massacres are not the members of Islamic groups. The members of the Islamic groups are Muslims and thus circumcised. These uncircumcised individuals could only be Kafir mercenaries, recruited by the Algerian Intelligence and Western governments to perpetrate such massacres, which are then attributed to Islamic groups.

So again I ask? Would anyone who believes in Allah (swt), His Messenger Muhammad (saw), and the Last Day fight and kill innocent Muslims? He would not have gone on a killing spree slaughtering, burning and disembowelling women, pregnant women, children and the elderly. Would Muslims who call for the implementation of the Shariah laws commit such atrocities? These are people who know that Islam conclusively forbids such criminal acts under all circumstances. These are people who know that he who kills a soul unjustly is as if he has killed all humankind. These are people who know that the Messenger of Allah (saw) used to forbid the warriors from killing women, children and the elderly who are incapable of fighting. He (saw) also prohibited the mutilation of the dead.

The statements made by Habib Souaïdia in his book, confirm what the Muslims of Algeria have known for many years, that the government has been waging a war against them. The kafir and their agents plot and plan to not only destroy the thought of the Muslims, but to physically destroy the Muslims. The kuffar and their agents work hard to scare the Muslims away from the truth, and the implementation of that which Allah (swt) revealed. Similar events occur in other Muslim lands; in Turkey, the Hizbullah is a government-controlled organisation that kills Muslims and blames it on “Islamists”.