Rais massacre

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Algerian massacres in 1997
Massacres in which over 50 people were killed:
Thalit massacre	3 - 4 April
Haouch Khemisti massacre	21 April
Dairat Labguer massacre	16 June
Si-Zerrouk massacre	27 July
Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre	3 August
Souhane massacre	20 - 21 August
Beni-Ali massacre	26 August
Rais massacre	29 August
Beni-Messous massacre	5 - 6 September
Guelb El-Kebir massacre	19 September
Bentalha massacre	22 September
Sid El-Antri massacre	23 - 24 December
Wilaya of Relizane massacres	30 December
1996 - [Edit] - 1998

The Rais massacre, occurring on August 29, 1997, was one of Algeria's bloodiest massacres of the 1990s. It took place at the village of Rais, near Larbaa and south of Algiers. The initial official death toll was 98 people killed and 120 wounded; CNN said that hospital workers and witnesses gave a toll of at least 200, and up to 400. The figure given by the Algerian government to the UN Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2000/3/Add.1) was 238. The BBC later quoted the figure of 800 killed[1].

In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a brutal civil conflict that had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The poor farming village of Rais (see map) had mostly voted for FIS and had a history of supporting Islamist guerrillas in the region, but (according to a villager quoted by PBS) had recently stopped providing them with food and money.

The hooded attackers arrived about 1 am in trucks and cars, armed with shotguns, knives, axes, and bombs. They continued killing the village's men, women, children, and even animals until dawn (about 6 am), cutting throats and taking the time to burn corpses; young women, however, were abducted instead of being killed. In some cases, they left severed heads on doorsteps. They mutilated and stole from the dead, and committed atrocities against pregnant women. They burned and bombed some houses. The villagers tried to flee or hide. Army units stayed outside the village, shooting at fleeing villagers, but not attempting to enter the village until after the attackers, carrying away some 20 young women, left at dawn.

Responsibility was claimed for this, as for the Bentalha massacre, by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). In An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres (a book arguing that the GIA had become a tool of the state) two survivors are quoted as reporting that the killers were dressed like "Afghans", with turbans, covered faces, beards (some false), and uniforms, that the attackers were also cursing God throughout, and that among them were a few women, wearing hijab over a uniform. These accounts (which can be read below) appear not to be corroborated by major media outlets.

The government vowed to "continue to struggle without mercy against the barbarous criminals until their eradication", announcing a massive manhunt and new measures to reinforce rural security. Amnesty International expressed concern regarding the government response, noting that "the massacre site is surrounded by army barracks and security forces posts, located between a few hundreds metres and a few kilometers away", including an army barracks 100 metres away, and quoting a survivor as saying "The army and the security forces were right there; they heard and saw everything and did nothing, and they let the terrorists leave." The Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, retorted to ITN that "the army, the national guard intervened, intervened as quickly as it was possible." The authorities cited concern regarding the possible presence of mines and ambushes; however, a rescue worker interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the first gendarmes there had not taken any precautions against possible mines as they drove in.

The Algerian government told the UN Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2000/3/Add.1) that "A judicial inquiry was opened by the Larbâa court and the four perpetrators of the massacre identified. Search warrants were issued by the examining magistrate on 30 May 1998." How four attackers could have killed 238 people is not made clear.

The village's population had already dropped from 1000 before the conflict began to 200 after the massacre; many of the remainder left following this massacre. Some of those who remained were given arms by the government for future self-defense, according to La Tribune, which quotes residents opposing Abdelaziz Bouteflika's amnesty to certain members of the armed groups (the Law of National Reconciliation), fearing that it would include murderers like those who killed their neighbors.

[edit] Alleged eyewitness accounts

Quoted by CNN (Aug. 29):

"The terrorists split in several groups of 10 before they attacked the isolated villages ... They used shotguns, knives and axes to kill these innocent people," one resident said.

"It was a real horrible massacre ... more than 200 people, including women and children, were killed," a Blida resident said earlier by telephone. The attackers also kidnapped more than 20 young women for "temporary marriage," he said.

Quoted by Rachid Khiari, Associated Press (Aug. 30):

"They took their time to cut throats and to burn the bodies," a 35-year-old man who would only give his first name, Amar, said in a telephone interview.

...hospital workers and villagers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the death toll surpassed 300.

Filmed by Saira Shah for ITN (Oct. 21):

WOMAN: (speaking through interpreter) "We were in the middle of men who were shooting at us from two sides. They shot at our feet so that we would fall. Then they cut the throats of those who fell, except the young virgins. They took them away alive. There were fifty or sixty people fleeing. You simply ran in a group to get to the main road, while all the time they were grabbing at us to cut our throats, throwing grenades at us." When they reached the main road, the only lighted place, the villagers claim the army was already there but it didn’t help them. Instead, soldiers shot at anyone who approached, and they never tried to enter the village. The people were trapped in the dark back streets, along with the killers. They ran to and fro, looking for shelter. Some came here, to the house of a neighbor. This woman says, "They came to me because my house is more secure. We told each other, ‘We’ll all live together, or we’ll die together.’"

MAN: (speaking through interpreter) I was holding my handicapped child in my arms. I was running with my baby and trying to shelter us both from the bullets, but I met the terrorist in front of me and one tried to strike me with a hatchet, so I blocked it with this arm. I was injured. I fell down and dropped the baby. They took the baby by the leg and threw it against the wall. They smashed its head. [...] They used to come to the families in the village. And they would help them; they gave them food and money. But now no families give help, so they do this to us, and take what they can by force. [...] Because there is high unemployment young people have no jobs so the terrorists find it easy to recruit them." Since the massacre the villagers have been given weapons with which to defend themselves but only on condition they form a government-supervised local defense unit known as Patriots to counter the militants. Our witness refused to say whether they were useful. When pressed, he said he didn’t believe in anything, the army, the Patriots, nothing.

Quoted by Amnesty International (1 Dec, MDE 28/36/97)

One survivor said: "The army and the security forces were right there; they heard and saw everything and did nothing, and they let the terrorists leave.... They waited for the terrorists to finish their dirty task and then they let them leave. What does this mean to you?"

Survivors emphasised how massacres occurred close to army barracks. "People banged on my door screaming. Frightened neighbours wanted to pass through my house to run to the army barrack, which is not far - about 100 metres - to alert the army and seek their protection."

Quoted by Latefa Belarouci, "L'enfance blessée: à tel présent, quel avenir?" (paper delivered at the 6th Pan-African Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent):

En effet, que dire à Sihem, âgées de six ans, qui nous a raconté avec de menus détails, le regard fixe comme si elle voyait la scène se dérouler sous ses yeux, comment elle a vu sa mère se faire égorger alors qu’elle-même était cachée derrière le lavabo... (What then to say to Sihem, 6 years old, who told us in the minutest detail, gaze fixed as if she saw the scene unfolding before her eyes, how she saw her mother butchered as she hid behind the toilet...")

Quoted by Amine Alami in Liberté, 29-30 Aug. 1997:

« Nous avons cru, au début à un déploiement des forces de l’ANP contre une présence suspecte de groupes armés dans la région », nous a déclaré hier un jeune, le seul rescapé d’une famille de huit membres, tous assassinés. « Ils portaient des sacs de munitions, des kalachnikovs et des lance-roquettes », témoigne-t-il encore. ("At first we thought it was an army deployment against a suspected presence of armed groups in the region," a youth told us yesterday, the only survivor of a family of eight. "They were carrying bags of ammunition, Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers," he adds.

Cherifa, quoted by Saliha Aouès in La Tribune, 9 February 2005:

«J’avais mon dernier dans les bras, collé à moi. En une fraction de seconde, on s’est retrouvé à courir, à tomber les uns sur les autres. Je ne me souciais que de mes enfants que je ne voyais plus. Puis rien, le néant…» ... «Au petit matin, je n’ai pas vu mes petits, je ne les ai plus revus. J’ai compris sans l’accepter. Je ne l’accepte toujours pas. Même si c’est la volonté de Dieu. Je le sais. Mektoub peut-être mais le feu est toujours en moi et plus jamais rien n’arrivera à en éteindre la flamme. C’est ainsi…» Elle pleure encore un bon coup... Elle cite en vrac le prénom de chacun de ses enfants égorgés. Smaïl avait 25 ans, «c’était mes yeux», commente-t-elle. Boubekeur en avait 18, Radia, 11, Khadidja, 9 et son tout dernier Abdelmalek, tout juste 4 printemps... «C’est lui que j’avais dans les bras avant le drame… comment oublier ? Je ne peux pas, c’est plus fort que moi. Au-dessus de mes forces…» Elle ajoute que son fils rescapé, Sofiane, a été capturé lors de cette tuerie et on ne sait par quel miracle il a été relâché. Son mari refuse de se montrer, il est pratiquement alité après avoir été gravement blessé au cours de cette nuit du 28 août. Il souffre toujours des séquelles des coups qui lui ont été portés. «Il a eu le ventre déchiré et le corps ouvert de partout…» "I had my last one grasped in my arms. In a fraction of a second, we found ourselves fleeing, falling over each other. I thought of nothing but my children whom I could no longer see. Then nothing[...]" "In the morning, I hadn't seen my children, I hadn't seen them again. I understood without accepting. I will never accept, even if it's the will of God. I know. Mektoub [destiny] it may be, but the fire is always in me and will never be extinguished. That's how it is..." She cries again[...] She gives the names of each of her butchered children. Smail, 25, "he was my eyes", she adds. Boubekeur at 18, Radia, 11, Khadidja, 9, and her youngest, Abdelmalek, just 4[...] "It was him I was holding in my arms before it started... how could I forget? I can't do it, it's too much for me. More than I can handle..." She adds that her surviving son, Sofiane, was captured during the killing and no one knows by what miracle he was spared. His husband refuses to show himself; he is practically confined to his bed after being gravely wounded that night of August 28. He always suffers from the blows he received. "He had his belly torn open and his body open everywhere..."

Quoted by Hasna Yacoub in La Tribune, 9 February 2005:

Rima n’avait pourtant que trois ans cette nuit là. «Je me rappelle quand nous nous sommes cachés sous les escaliers. J’étais au milieu de cris et de larmes», lâche la petite fille. Rima was only 3 that night. "I remember when we hid behind the stairs. I was surrounded by screams and tears," says the little girl.

Khadija, 65 ans, pleure encore son mari, criblé de balles sur la terrasse de sa maison avant quelle ne soit complètement brûlée. Son fils Sidi Ali, poignardé, a survécu avec de graves séquelles. Khadija ne peut pas pardonner, et d’ajouter : «En l’espace de quelques heures, il ne nous restait plus rien. Sauf peut-être de multiples blessures et une mémoire meurtrie à jamais.» Khadija, 65, still mourns her husband, shot on his own porch, then totally burned. Her son Sidi Ali, stabbed, survived with grave injuries. Khadija cannot forgive, and adds: "In the space of a few hours, nothing was left to us. Except maybe many wounds and a memory bruised forever."

Cherifa n’entendra pas le mot amnistie, au mot «irhab», elle est déjà en sanglots. «Vous avez compris pourquoi je suis seule maintenant», lâche-t-elle entre deux sanglots. Cinq de ses huit enfants ont été égorgés. Cherifa caresse son ventre qui leur a donné la vie en pleurant : «Mon petit n’avait que 4 ans. Il a été arraché de mes bras pour être égorgé.» (Cherifa will not hear of an amnesty; at the word "irhab" (terrorism), she is already in tears. Five of her children were butchered. Cherifa caresses her belly which gave them life as she cries: "My little one was just 4 years old. He was torn from my arms to be butchered."

Quoted by Human Rights Watch, "Algeria: Violations of Civil and Political Rights: A Briefing Paper for the U.N. Human Rights Committee", July 1998:

The military's concern for mines as an obstacle to timely intervention was also called into question by the testimony of a former rescue worker, now seeking asylum in a European country, who said he was one of the first people to reach the Algiers suburb of Rais hours after a massacre that claimed the lives of more than 350 civilians on the night of August 29, 1997. He told Human Rights Watch that ambulance workers and firemen had been alerted to an emergency and were told simply to await further orders. "They didn't tell us what had happened. After about one and-a-half hours, they asked us to go to Rais because there had been carnage there and we should go to help the people," he said. "We were the first to arrive at the scene. No cars had arrived there ahead of us. The gendarmerie who came with us were the first security forces to arrive on the scene. The gendarmes did not check for mines."

Mrs. Bachiri, interviewed by the Ligue algérienne pour la défense des droits de l'homme, according to « Voices of the voiceless », in Youcef BEDJAOUI, Abbas ARROUA, Meziane AIT-LARBI, An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres, p. 212 sq.[2]:

Q : Mrs Bachiri, what can you tell us about the Raïs massacre ?

A : What can I tell you ? During the Raïs massacre, sixteen of my brothers, my milk brothers, were killed. One of them is seventy-five year old. He participated in the war of liberation. Seven of his children were [killed along] with him. His daughter came to visit them on that day. They were having a party, a marriage ceremony, one of the girls in the family was getting married. I was there, I was present… not when the massacre took place, no… the massacre occurred after I had left. So his guests [i.e. daughter, her husband and children] were staying overnight with him…

Q : What is his name ? I mean your brother’s name ?

A : The eldest Guennouche Amara. The other brother, the younger one, is sixty years old. He is blind. He was born blind.

Q : Was he killed too ?

A : Yes, they slaughtered him along with his seven children. They slit their throats. He is blind the poor guy… a blind man… what could he have done to deserve this ? He is married to a lady who is not totally fit mentally. She gave him two sons and two daughters. The sons were dragged outside with their father and had their throats slit, whereas the daughters were taken away. One is twentyeight years old, the other is twenty-four. As for Amara, they first called him out, he said : 'why would they want to kill me ? What did I do ? They should go and sort out the patriots.' He acts both as an imam and caretaker for the local mosque. They told him : 'come out we want a word with you'. When he came out they were there… with military uniforms and toting their guns. There were a few women with them. The women were wearing the hijab over a military uniform.

One of the soldiers cut the finger of one of Amara’s daughters and said to his colleague : 'take the gold, take the gold'. Amara’s 2-year-old granddaughter was found burnt in the oven. His old daughter [the guest], was slaughtered too… she was lying on the ground… they put one of her sons on her right arm, another son on the left arm and they shouted 'Allah Akfar'… We say : Allah Akbar [Allah is the Greatest]' but they were saying 'Allah Akfar' [Allah is the worst of the unbelievers]. They came in cars, in Landrovers… People who stayed at home were slaughtered, and those who went out were shot dead. My sister lives nearby. Her young son saw exactly what happened. He hid under a metallic sheet and saw what happened.

Q : How old is he ?

A : He is about nine years old. He said they wore military uniforms. Their heads were covered with turbans, similar to those worn by the Touaregs. Their faces were covered. The soldiers were on standby nearby. In fact, the army unit was stationed near the mosque. So were did these killers come from ? How could they go through the military unit near the mosque ?

Q : So did they kill both of your brothers and their families ?

A : Yes, they slaughtered both my brothers and their children. My brothers had seven each. A total of sixteen…

Q : What about the house ?

A : They burnt it…

We are puzzled… Why would anyone want to kill this family ? They are not involved in anything. Their son in law, who was there on a visit, escaped miraculously. His wife helped him to get to the loft so that he could see what was happening. By the time he made it to the loft they [the killers] were already inside the house. He could see everything, including the killing of his wife and children, but could not utter a word. What can he say ? What can he say now ? If he says anything the soldiers will take him away and get rid of him… Other people who saw what happened cannot talk either. They fear the army’s reprisal. They say that if they mention anything the soldiers will come back and take them away and they will disappear. The government says that my brothers (and their families) are victims of terrorism. What terrorists are they talking about ? They say it is the Islamists… Are they Muslims those who kill other fellow Muslims ? And how come my brothers were slaughtered, the victims of terrorism [we are told], and my children were put in jail and they disappeared ! ? Who is doing this ? The cows, sheep were killed. Even a donkey was not spared.

Anonymous speaking to the Association for the Defence of the Victims of the Massacres in Algeria, Copenhagen, also according to « Voices of the voiceless »:

"My name is C. […] and I am a native of Raïs. I am married to M. and I live in the heights of Algiers. It is a very dangerous area where some massacres did take place. The press never reported them. Two days before the massacre I told my husband that I wanted to visit my parents, brothers and sisters in Raïs. I took with me my daughter M. Neither I, nor my parents, nor anyone thought that one day Raïs would be attacked and that its inhabitants would be massacred, especially since it is surrounded by the military and barracks. On the night of the massacre all seemed quiet. Suddenly we heard shouts and screams, and then the hail of bullets. My father and my brother opened the door to find out what was happening in the village There was panic. There were many armed people running in all directions. It was dark. The village was being attacked from all sides. My father closed the door. It was panic at home. The others were thinking of running away but I was thinking about my daughter. People were shouting from everywhere so that the military close to the village might hear. Unfortunately, although the sound of the hail of bullets and the explosions of bombs could be heard 5 kilometres away, no one came to help us. In the midst of the screams, they smashed the door down and broke the windows. There was quite a number of them. My brother and father tried to defend us but they were beaten to death by axes. My daughter tried to run away but she was caught and slaughtered by two attackers. As for me, I tried to hang on to life but I was beaten with an axe and an iron bar and knocked over. I was hit in the face and was bleeding everywhere, but when I was about to fall down I clung to the beard of my killer. Although he had a long beard and Afghan clothes he was no Muslim for he was cursing God. The other attackers were also insulting God. As I told you, I clung to his beard and it came off. He had a false beard. I lost consciousness from the beating by my killer. When I woke up, I was in a hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses. I stayed over a month in the hospital. I am still in a state of shock and traumatised. That is all I can say because I am still in Algeria and I am afraid for my husband and his family. No one can ensure our safety. The security forces and the military arrived after the ambulance men and the firemen, and not a single one of the attackers — they were about a hundred — has yet been caught."