A new massacre in Algeria - new hope for peace
Algeria, Military, 9/24/1997

Two hundred people were killed, according to eyewitnesses and hospital workers, in a new tragedy, yesterday before dawn, in Baraki, a southeastern suburb of Algiers. The official government news agency (APS) reported the collective murder, reducing the number to eighty five casualties and one hundred injuries. It described the massacre as an "act of barbarism by terrorists." This slaughter, where Islamic fanatics were seen stabbing and shooting children and women, is said to be the second deadliest one since 1992, after the August 29 massacre in Rais (300 people dead).

Meanwhile, the Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) headed by Abassi Madani, called for a truce in a two-page communique two days before the Baraki massacre, the Associated Press reported. The communique was critical of the more radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which has been regularly blamed for the savage attacks on civilians frequently reported since June parliamentary elections. Algeria is scheduled to hold local elections on October 23.

Madani, released from an Algerian prison in July, has also called for and end to the violence, but was placed under house arrest by the Algerian government in August after suggesting to the UN that it intervene to solve the crisis. Madani's FIS party was leading in 1992 elections, propting the military-backed goverment to cancel the elections and outlaw parties affiliated with religions. Those measures, in turn, lead to Islamist violence which is widely estimated to have claimed the lives over more tha 60,000 Algerians since 1992.

Previous Stories:
  52 villagers' throats cut out in Algeria   (9/22/1997)
  21 killed from the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria   (9/22/1997)
  13 killed. Zeroual assures Algerian elections will take place on October 23   (8/22/1997)

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