War-weary Algerians unmoved by new poll

It's official, because it's written in L'Authentique, the newspaper loyal to the Algerian presidential adviser, Gen Mohammed Betchine: "The voters of the capital will be able to vote in total security."

We shall see tomorrow, when Algerians are called to the polls for the fourth time in two years in the culmination of President Liamine Zeroual's "democratisation" of Algeria. Thirty-seven parties are fielding candidates for 1,500 local assemblies across the country. But the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which won a landslide victory in the last municipal elections in June 1990, is still outlawed, and its exiled leaders have called for a boycott.

Ten candidates have been assassinated, one of them in a mosque. Yesterday's newspapers reported that five elderly women were found with their throats slashed in an eastern Algerian village that was supposed to have been safe, thanks to a truce declared by the Islamic Salvation Army.

The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is circulating tracts promising a violent election weekend. Residents of the capital spread rumours of an imminent bombing campaign, although the fundamentalists failed to carry out similar threats before three previous polls.

An army offensive in the Bainem forest on the western periphery of the capital is intended to reassure Algerians that the military is taking the initiative in its war against the GIA. The military claim they have surrounded several dozen guerrillas in underground shelters whose approaches are mined. The sound of the mines detonating can be heard in central Algiers.

An important GIA leader, Mr Athmane Khelifi, known as "Flicha", is said to be among them. His group allegedly committed the September 5th-6th massacre of 85 civilians near BeniMessous, and is said to have murdered French cameraman Olivier Quemeneur in the Casbah in 1994.

But if the army has improved its reputation with recent successes against the GIA, the discovery of what Algerian newspapers call a veritable "GIA" state at Ouled Allel has raised other questions.

The guerrillas had taken over the entire village, constructed a series of underground bunkers and established their own bomb factory. Captured documents show the GIA has set up a parallel economy; it builds houses, buys apartments for members' families and invests in agricultural land. Once again, the Algerian government is being condemned for its negligence. Public disillusionment has grown as the violence continues. In the 1995 presidential election, Algerians wanted desperately to believe President Zeroual's promise to end the civil war. The turnout plummeted in the November 1996 constitutional referendum. Now high-ranking civil servants privately admit that last June's parliamentary poll, won by President Zeroual's party, was rigged.

This latest election campaign has met with total indifference. In the villages of Mitidja plain, where hundreds of Algerians have been massacred since August, survivors said it seemed obscene to talk about the poll.

The only good news yesterday was that Algiers police had released Mr Mohamed Tahri, the lawyer representing families of men who have been kidnapped by the security forces. Mr Tahri was detained after organising a peaceful demonstration on Monday.

Slow descent into a life of terror: page 12