The Collective of the Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (CFDA) and SOS Disappeared are denouncing the new outrages coming from the Algerian authorities, which are targeting the most fundamental rights of the relatives of the disappeared.

Since several days, all the families who have refused to ask for the indemnifications have received notices from the police station and / or from the court. These formal notices, coming from the Wali, have been sent by a bailiff and are enjoining the families to go immediately to the court in order to ask for a death judgement. In certain regions, the policemen are coming in person to see the families at their home."You take it! Even if you throw it, even if you give it to the mosque! You have three days to make a decision, after you won’t have anything." The law representatives are verbally abusing the families of the disappeared but the families are still fighting. They are refusing to start a process which would bury their relatives forever.

This claim - the right to truth – is just but totally forgotten by the authorities who want to impose, by decrees or by threats, the silence. Furthermore, following their incomprehensible logical, the higher authorities of the country are not giving the indemnifications to the families who are asking for it. The families who are not asking for it are forced to accept it.

It is necessary to keep in mind that the indemnification, as proposed by the Algerian authorities, shall not be considered as real reparation. In fact, the international law considers that reparation, to be effective, has to be associated to the rights to Truth and Justice. On the contrary, the Algerian authorities are still refusing, years after years, to recognize these rights to the families of the disappeared.

In front of this travesty of reconciliation, marked by disdain and injustice, the families of the disappeared are still united and determined to obtain the truth on the faith of all the disappeared. At the moment where the agreements between EU and Algeria are renegotiated, the CFDA and SOS Disappeared are calling upon the international community and the civil society to support the struggle of the relatives of the disappeared for Truth and Justice.

Algiers / Paris, August 18th 2009