Insecurity in Kabylia – An Algerian general « Securing Tizi-Ouzou is not evident »

Kidnappings, rackets, murders are Kabylia’s everyday life especially since 2001 which marked Kabylia’s historical uprising against the dictatorship of the head of the state with Abdelaziz Bouteflika, which resulted 128 victims shot by war guns and thousands of handicapped for life.

In a conference held last Sunday by police head, general Abdelghani Hamel declared that assuring the security of Tizi Ouzou; the most touched by these phenomenons, was not evident. An additional astonishing answer from a state responsible whose vanity went to bring its aid for securing the whole Sahara from AQMI.

A similar question which has previously been mentioned by Ferhat Mhenni, the head of the Provisional Government of Kabylia in exil. In a region known for its historical secularism and rejection of Radical Islam, none could identify the origins of this sudden reversing of the situation. During the 90’s, also known as the Black Decade, Kabylia was nicknamed Little Switzerland for its non involvement in terrorism. From the early hours, Kabylians claimed guns from the state to assure their own security in what is known as Legitimacy Defense Groups that multiplied to thousands and acted as municipal police. They did so first for their lack of trust in their government, second for it was a declaration of war against the obscurantism of the Arabo-Islamists who aimed at eradicating their specific Kabyle-Berber beliefs and culture and instituting an Islamic republic.

-For several attempts by authorities to disarm these defense groups which responded generally by a categorical refusal,
-For the contrasting versions of the state which affirms in one side that terrorism has been eradicated, which would then justify the returning back of guns, and on the other side they declare that securing Kabylia is not easy,
-For this sudden sinking of Kabylia in a chaos,
-For the over-presence of the army and security forces in Kabylia and their inability to act and stop this general insecurity,
-For terrorizing business men and pushing them out from Kabylia,
-For the deliberate causing of forest fires in Kabylia by the army,

It became evident to the inhabitants of the region that the responsibility of the state. A state known for its intolerance and non-respect of any law except its own, a state to which Kabylia and Kabylians are confronted since the independence of the country in 1962.

A region which refuses Algiers’ Arabo-Islamic orientation and which denounces the treason of the revolution by the Algerian leaders whose lonely language is repression and violence.

This is on what the Provisional Government of Kabylia established one year ago in France basing itself to denounce the Algerian state terrorism on this region aiming at its depersonalization acculturation.

In recent interventions, Ferhat Mhenni accused directly the Algerian regime of organizing these repressive and terrorizing operations in Kabylia. Operation aiming at diverting the Kabylian people from their seek for their regional autonomy according to Ferhat Mhenni. Therefore he called the Kabylians to assure their own security. It’s fair to bear in mind that all the freed people from their kidnappers was the result of the popular mobilization and solidarity, any intervention of the armed forces hasn’t been registered until now.