German submarine to the port of Algiers

Newsletter 2007/09/07 - Ever Ready

ALGIERS/BERLIN (Own Report) - The dispatching of a German submarine to the port of Algiers underscores the German government's military interest in Algeria. Berlin permits the training of Algerian soldiers in Germany and would like to incorporate this North African country into the NATO through so-called anti-terror measures. Germany is also supplying its military partner, Algeria, with large quantities of arms. Cooperation at the level of the intelligence services and police should soon be formalized and sealed in a treaty. The government of Algeria, predominated by the military, has been waging a so-called war on terror against Islamist rebels for the past 15 years. Algeria's repressive organs are accused of serious crimes. In a conversation with german-foreign-policy.com, Salima Mellah, of the Algeria Watch human rights organization, reported that at the beginning of this year, for example, an Algerian prisoner was tortured to death, even in July, people were disappearing. "The 'death machine' that began to be set up in 1992, has not been dismantled" says Ms. Mellah: "Though it is no longer as intensively applied, as it had been ten years ago, it is ever ready to be put into action again."

more

http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56090