Brussels, 18/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Various associations and personalities have reacted to the arrival of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Brussels, where he met, on Tuesday, European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine before signing, on Wednesday, the EU/Algeria association agreement in the presence of Messrs Prodi, Patten and Lamy.
In a letter addressed to Ms Fontaine, Mr Prodi and MEPs, the Belgian Solidarity Committee for Democracy in Algeria and two Berber associations affirm that, in Algeria, a "military and mafioso dictatorship legitimised in 1999 after tricked elections" reigns. He spoke of hundreds of young people assassinated in Kabylia by the armed forces between April and June 2000, the violation of individual rights, the "archaic and retrograde family code that discriminates against women (…), the fruit of a compromise between the authority in power and the fundamentalists". '"Do you really think that such a partner is honourable and acceptable? How can you think you can implement the clause on human rights included in the agreement (…) when these rights are thwarted daily by the Algerian authority in power?", ask these associations. They call above all for: - a democratic constitution; - official recognition of the Berber language (Tamazight); - equality between men and women; - and the equitable sharing of national wealth. Amnesty International also underlines the many violations of human rights, the disappearances, the assassinations and acts of torture. It says that signing the association agreement quite simply demonstrates that the "human rights clause is not worth more than the paper it is written on". French Green member Hélène Flautre signed with 70 other personalities a petition which reproaches the European Commission and the Fifteen for having chosen to "associate themselves with the Algeria of Generals" which, for the past ten years, has been responsible with Islamists for 200,000 deaths, over 10,000 disappearances, and millions of injured. The signatories deplore the fact that "in the face of the Islamic peril", Europe has chosen to "support notoriously corrupt and bloody military" adopting as its own what Nixon said of the Nicaraguan dictator Somoz: "He is a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch"