Algeria won't talk to rebels
2004-07-21 12:07
Algiers - The Algerian foreign minister on Tuesday ruled out talks with a Chadian rebel movement which claims to be holding a top Algerian militant allegedly behind the kidnapping of European tourists last year.
"Algeria has not negotiated the extradition of this terrorist (Amari Saifi) and will not deal with the leader of a rebel movement," Abdelaziz Belkhadem said, denying media reports that Algiers was talking to the Chadian rebels.
"This affair will be taken care of among states and not between a state and a rebel movement," he told a news conference.
Press reports on Sunday quoted Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni as saying that Algeria had begun discussions with a view to putting Saifi, also known as Abderrezak "the Para", on trial in Algeria.
The Chadian rebel group the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), has claimed since mid-March that they are holding activists from Algeria's top extremist group the GSPC.
The MDJT on Sunday reiterated its willingness to hand over Abderrezak "the Para" to Algeria without conditions.
"We have always said we were willing to hand over our prisoners unconditionally to Algeria," said spokesperson Aboubakar Radjab-Dazi, speaking by phone from Paris.
The Salafist Group for Combat and Preaching (GSPC) is the most active among extremists in an Islamist rebellion that has left some 150 000 people dead since 1992.
Saifi is alleged to have led a GSPC group that kidnapped 32 European tourists last year, most of them Germans. One of the hostages, a German woman, died in captivity.
He has been sought since September under international arrest warrant issued by Germany in connection with the kidnappings.
Although Saifi's capture was confirmed by the federal prosecutor's office in the German city of Karlsruhe on May 18, Zerhouni's reported comments came after months of uncertainty over the whereabouts of the former lieutenant to GSPC founder Hassan Hattab.
On July 8 Libya gave rebels in northern Chad 48 hours to hand over a group of Algerian Islamic extremists or face military action, but the rebels rejected the ultimatum.