12/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - French MEP Alima Boumédiene-Thiery (a Green of Algerian origin) says she was deliberately kept away from any contact with the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika when he visited the EP in Strasbourg on 4 June. In a letter of complaint she explains that she had been helped by another Green MEP to attend the reception after the president's visit (to which she had not been invited) and had been able to question Bouteflika about the lack of emergency services, human security resources, public and military resources during the recent earthquake in the Algiers region and also about state responsibility for the application of minimum construction and town planning standards. I then spoke to him about the status and rights of women in family law. She is unhappy that the Algerian president, who had been jeered by the families of earthquake victims when he visited the area, told MEPs that all emergency resources had been mobilised. She said that his comments had been rather astounding.