Algeria hit by surge in guerrilla violence

[Al-khiyal]

Le kamikaze du Conseil Constitutionnel
a bénéficié des dispositions de la réconciliation nationale

Algiers bombers had been released in amnesty

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Attentats d'Alger : les recherches arrêtées dans les locaux de l'ONU

ALGIERS, December 14, 2007 (AFP)--Algerian rescue workers Friday halted their search for survivors from the debris of a ruined U.N. complex in the capital Algiers, three days after two car bombings killed 37 people by official count.

"Search operations have been stopped. There is little chance of finding survivors," lieutenant Nacer Boucherifa, chief of a civil protection unit, said on local radio.

Employees of the Asrout company, which is in charge of maintaining Algiers' roads, starting collecting rubble from the ruined complex in the Hydra suburb on Friday.

But about 40 rescue workers and two ambulances were still on standby in the area. Seven survivors were rescued from the rubble of the buildings.

The inhabitants of 12 houses bordering the U.N. offices which were damaged by the blast have been re-housed by the government and will receive compensation, the radio said.

The previous official toll from Tuesday's twin car bombings, claimed by Al- Qaida's North African branch, was 34 dead and 177 injured. But the interior ministry revised the toll on Friday to 37 after the bodies of three Algerian U.N. workers were found.

Medical officials however said the death toll was between 62 and 72.

The dead included at least 11 employees from the three U.N. offices hit - the U.N. Development Program, U.N. High Commission for Refugees and the International Labour Organization - UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis said Thursday.

The second attack killed and maimed students packed in a bus passing a car as it was detonated outside the country's highest court in central Algiers.

Around 100 people have been killed in a string of bombings in Algeria this year including one on April 11 against government headquarters and another on September 6 aimed at the motorcade of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Algeria halts search operations at devastated UN complex

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Filipino killed in Algiers blasts

MOGPOG, Marinduque, December 14, 2007 -- Childhood friends fondly remember Gene (pronounced Genie) Luna "as a most jolly person."

Luna was the Filipina staffer of the United Nations World Food Program (UN-WFP) killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Algeria Tuesday.

Conchita Leyco is a professor at the Marinduque State College who was Luna's neighbor, close friend and elementary grade classmate at the Mogpog Central School.

She remembered Luna as a very friendly person who smiled and laughed a lot.

"She seemed to know everybody as she used to greet everyone she sees or meets," said Leyco. "Gene was also a stoic person. She was somebody who was not easily affected by problems which is the reason why she had a jolly personality."

Molly Paredes, another friend, agreed.

"Kapag tumawa siya, halakhak talaga," [When she laughed, she really laughed loud] Paredes said. "No wonder she was our school's cheerleader."

Leyco also recalled that Luna would always want to role-play to while away their leisure time.

"We usually play roles and she would always be a nurse or a banker," Leyco said. These interests, according to Leyco, may have been the reasons why Luna joined the UN-WFP as a finance officer.

"She was very active in scouting as she was designated as a scout leader," said Leyco.

"Buo ang loob niya sa mga gagawin. Kung ano gusto niyang gawin ay gagawin niya," [She was confident about her tasks. What she wanted to do she would do] she added.

Engineer Joven Morales, a professor at the Marinduque State College and former president of the Eternal Love and Peace Organization (ELPO), a civic organization in Mogpog during the 70's and 80's, remembers Luna as one of their most active members.

"Our organization assists the municipal government and the church with their projects and Gene saw to it that she participated actively in each of our activities," said Morales.

"She was once ELPO's secretary and board director, and she was very effective in what she did," added Morales.

Rosalinda Nunez, a relative of Luna, said the family is well known in their community.

Luna was the youngest child of the late Arturo and Carolina Luna, who were both public elementary school teachers.

Luna's eldest sister, Lilian, is a music teacher based in Manila while her only brother Arthur works as a nurse overseas.

Nunez said they are still clueless about funeral arrangements because Lilian is still coordinating with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the repatriation of Gene’s remains.

"We are, however, looking forward that she will be buried here so that she will be with her parents," added Nunez.

Since the late ‘80s, only a caretaker has been staying at the Luna family home in this town.

Luna, 48, died when the third floor of the UN building housing the WFP offices, was destroyed in a car bombing.

She joined the program as a finance officer in Afghanistan five years ago and was transferred to Algiers in Algiera only last week, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in Rome.

Childhood pals remember UN staffer killed in Algeria

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December 14, 2007 -- Staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are mourning the loss of two colleagues, both Algerian nationals, killed in the deadly terror attack that struck the world body’s offices in Algiers on Tuesday.

Drivers Karim Bentebal and Nabil Slimani, both Algerian nationals, were killed when a car bomb ripped the façade off the UNHCR office, the agency’s spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva today, adding that one staff member was seriously wounded, while others sustained minor injuries.

A support team from Geneva, where the agency is based, was urgently dispatched to the Algerian capital on Wednesday to assist staff and families of those killed in the attack, which also claimed the lives of at least nine other UN staff members.

UNHCR has about 40 staff working in Algeria, 14 of whom were in Algiers at the time of the blast, Ms. Pagonis said. Most of the agency’s staff work in the Tindouf area some 2,000 kilometres south-west of the capital, assisting Sahrawi refugees from Western Sahara living in five refugee camps.

The agency lost another staff member last week when driver Mahamat Mahamadou, a Chadian national, was shot dead in his vehicle in the southern part of the country (Chad).

“It has been a particularly black time for UNHCR, with three drivers killed in the line of humanitarian duty in the space of a week,” said Ms. Pagonis. “UNHCR drivers are a vital part of our frontline humanitarian staff and widely recognised as crucial to our operations and understanding of the countries we work in. It is very troubling that three drivers have lost their lives in such violent circumstances within a week.”

UN refugee agency mourns staff killed in Algiers bomb attack

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ISLAMABAD, December 14, 2007 (APP): President Pervez Musharraf Friday expressed his deep shock on loss of life in a terrorist bomb attack on December 11 in Algeria. The President in a message to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said “Pakistan strongly condemns this dastardly act.”

The President said the Pakistani nation joins him in expressing solidarity with their Algerian brethren in their fight against terrorism.

“We condole with you the death of the innocent civilians and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. We also pray for the affected families of UN personnel in this difficult hour,” he added.

The President expressed his “deep distress” about the bomb attacks on the Supreme Court and constitutional council in Ben Aknoun and Hydra that resulted in the tragic loss of lives of the Algerian people, UN personnel and damage to the property.

Musharraf shocked over loss of life in Algeria

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Jeudi 13 Decembre 2007 -- Le ministère de la Solidarité nationale a chargé une équipe médicale d’apporter une aide psychologique et sociale aux rescapés de l’attentat qui avant ciblé la représentation de l’ONU à Alger, a affirmé hier un responsable du ministère.

Constituée en collaboration avec le réseau Wassila et le village SOS enfants en détresse de Draria, cette équipe regroupe 15 spécialistes. Le ministère a dépêché une équipe de psychologues vers les hôpitaux pour la prise en charge des personnes souffrant de traumatismes et le recensement des familles victimes de cet attentat.

Sur le lieu de l’attentat, des engins lourds s’attèlent, dans un va-et-vient incessant, à déblayer les débris et à effacer les séquelles des terribles attentats. Les éléments de la Protection civile tentent, pour leur part, dans une atmosphère triste et sous une pluie fine, de dégager, en utilisant des grues, les énormes blocs de béton dans l’espoir de dégager d’éventuels survivants de ces actes macabres.

Les éléments de sécurité étaient, eux aussi, mobilisés et en état d’alerte afin de faciliter le travail des secours et des employés de l’entreprise des travaux publics (ASROUT) chargée de déblayer le site. Des familles, regroupées derrière des barrières installées à quelques mètres des lieux de l’attentat, étaient venues s’enquérir du sort des leurs, employés au niveau du siège des instances onusiennes ou simples habitants du quartier.

Le ministère de la Solidarité nationale a mis en place un numéro vert (15 27) du secours social algérien, pour l’écoute, l’assistance et l’accompagnement des personnes, affectées matériellement et moralement.

Attentat contre le Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés :
Les rescapés seront pris en charge psychologiquement

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Les morgues de la capitale replongent dans le cauchemar de la décennie rouge :
Les cimetières, les autres témoins de la tragédie

Jeudi 13 Décembre 2007 -- De derrière les barreaux de la morgue centrale d’El Alia, un quinquagénaire fait un signe de la main à quelqu’un paraissant avoir le même âge. « Impossible de le laver. Prenons le ‘‘corps’’ tel qu’il est. D’ailleurs personne ne le verra à la maison puisqu’on va plomber le cercueil », chuchote l’homme à la mine abattue. Les deux hommes paraissent proches de la victime de l’attentat commis à Hydra et tuée sur le coup devant le bâtiment de l’ONU, avait-on appris dans l’entourage familial. La malheureuse victime, dont le corps a été déchiqueté, devra quitter la morgue sans avoir été soumise à l’ultime rite musulman, les ablutions du mort.

Un imam a été dépêché pour assister les familles par l’Etablissement de gestion des cimetières et pompes funèbres d’Alger (EGCPF), organisme sous tutelle de la wilaya d’Alger. Il avait rappelé à la famille que la religion a prévu ce cas de figure : « La dispense est de rigueur, car le corps n’est pas en entier. » Il est 15h, les 14 corps que la morgue a accueillis le soir de l’attentat ont tous succombé à Hydra.

Devant l’entrée, une trentaine de personnes désemparées, abattues et au bord de la crise de nerfs s’impatientent pour récupérer les cadavres de leurs proches. « L’enterrement est prévu pour demain (ndlr : aujourd’hui jeudi) à Sidi Aïch (wilaya de Béjaïa). Nous allons prendre la route cet après-midi, un trajet de pas moins de 220 km à faire », nous confient sur un ton d’impuissance les parents d’un couple de retraités, tués eux aussi à Hydra. Le camion piégé a sauté sous le logement des Akroune, tous deux septuagénaires.

« Les responsables de la morgue viennent de nous dire que nos proches nous seront remis dans quelques minutes. Il était temps », nous signale un autre parent qui se présente comme le cousin germain du défunt Bachir Akroune. « De son vivant, mon cousin ne cessait de nous dire : ‘‘Je veux être enterré dans la terre de mes ancêtres, à Takrietz’’ (5 km de Sidi Aïch). Il a émis ce vœu, nous devons respecter son testament. »

Les parents de Hind Boukhroufa, de Kamel Saït, de Djamel Rezzoug, de Nabil Slimani et tant d’autres malheureuses victimes font les cent pas. Sous une pluie battante et dans un silence religieux, ils attendent que les services de la morgue leur remettent les corps. Tout près, un groupe d’hommes et femmes vient de récupérer le corps de Samia Bouchrit, 56 ans, chirurgien avec rang de docent au CHU Mustapha Bacha d’Alger, ravie à l’affection des siens « en service commandé ».

« Elle devait rejoindre l’hôpital de Ben Aknoun suite à l’attentat qui a eu lieu près de cet EHS quelques minutes plus tôt, elle reçoit un appel l’enjoignant de rejoindre l’hôpital. Elle saute dans sa voiture, démarre en trombe et, comme à l’accoutumée, elle passe par le quartier des Oasis, et ce fut l’irréparable », nous raconte son cousin, les larmes aux yeux. Elle laisse une mère éplorée de 77 ans, une sœur cadette, également médecin, et un frère ophtalmologiste, établi à l’étranger.

« Il est rentré précipitamment. Nous allons emmener elmerhouma (la défunte) à Laghouat, sa ville natale, pour y être enterrée demain », enchaîne un membre de sa famille. Avant de nous quitter, cet homme d’une quarantaine d’années nous prie de transmettre un message aux gouvernants. « L’insécurité a tendance à régner partout. Les pouvoirs publics en sont responsables. Le tout-renseignement, comme il était en vigueur autrefois, doit être érigé en règle si nous voulons que notre cher pays soit à l’abri. »