Brussels, 03/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - During the meeting of the EU ministerial Troika, on Monday in Rome, (at Minister for Foreign Affairs level), Amnesty International called on the Italian Presidency to pressure Algeria to make firm commitments in terms of human rights. It is the time for truth, to respect the 'human rights' clause in the EU/Algeria Association Agreement, asserts the organisation, which is calling on the EU to demand that Algeria take significant initiatives against the past impunity for human rights abuses. According to Dick Oosting, Director of Amnesty's European Union office, if Algeria wants 'to show its good faith,' it must at least allow 'the truth about a decade of violence to come to light and cooperate with UN human rights experts.' In particular Amnesty calls for: - those responsible for the 'disappearances', since 1993, of at least 4,000 persons (arrested by the Algerian security forces or by armed state militias, indicates an Amnesty press release) to be brought to justice; - the UN working group on forced or involuntary disappearances to be allowed to visit Algeria (it requested the right to do so in 2000, but has yet to receive authorisation); - exhumed bodies from mass graves since 1998 and sites where they have been thrown to be examined in accordance with international standards and UN protocols.