Algerian blasts terrorism
2001-09-22 19:47
Algiers - Former Algerian defence minister General Khaled Nezzar, who
played a key role in preventing an Islamic party from coming to
power in 1992, has spoken out against terrorism, saying it is
"everyone's business".
"It is in the interest of modern societies and those who wish to
become modern societies, to join together to combat this evil of
the third millennium," Nezzar told the Algerian daily La Nouvelle
Republique.
Nezzar was a hardline senior figure in the Algerian government
that cancelled elections in 1992 which the Islamic Salvation Front
(FIS) was poised to win - a move blamed for the onset of the
campaign of massacres attributed to the militant Armed Islamic
Group (GIA).
The former minister, who has been accused in France of presiding
over systemic torture when he was head of the country's armed
forces, said on Saturday that European countries also suffered from
harbouring terrorists.
He condemned "certain European countries" for "shedding
crocodile tears" while harbouring terrorists themselves.
He said Britain in particular suffered from this rhetoric,
accusing the government there of harbouring GIA bases which give
orders to rebels operating within Algeria. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA