“The Algerian regime’s “black list

“The Algerian regime’s “black list

In its Official Journal of 24 July 2024, the Algerian regime published Executive Decree 24-243 establishing a “national list” and setting out the procedures for managing the list.

– After having promulgated in June 2021 article 87-bis of the Penal Code allowing any act of political opposition to be qualified as terrorism,
– After having suffered three massive rejections by the Kabyle people in the Algerian “presidential” elections of 2019, the “constitutional revision” of 2020 and the “legislative” elections of 2021, sanctioned by three clear and massive zero-votes,
– After having planned apocalyptic arson attacks in Kabylia in August 2021, causing the calcification of nearly 400 Kabyles and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of vegetation and orchards, and decimating livestock and wildlife,
– After condemning 54 Kabyles to death in November 2022, on the basis of empty files, in a sham Stalinist-style trial,
– After imprisoning hundreds of Kabyle citizens for expressing their opinion on the exactions of the Algerian regime,
– After banning tens of thousands of people from leaving the country for no good reason,
– After closing all the literary cafés and banning any cultural or commemorative event not initiated and controlled by the regime,

The Algerian regime, on the strength of the scurrilous Article 87 bis of the Penal Code, and in application of the provisions of this article, is introducing a blacklist of its opponents, known as the “national list”, which will contain “terrorist persons and entities”.

This article 87-bis has been denounced by numerous political figures at international level, including the US State Department, the European Commission of Human Rights, the UN Rapporteurs on Human Rights and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The “list” is managed by a commission, chaired by the Minister of the Interior and including no judges or representatives of civil society. The commission’s decisions are rushed and final; they are implemented within twenty-four hours. The state of emergency is virtually in place and will last indefinitely.

The list includes “any person (…) who has been convicted or sentenced for committing or attempting to commit one of the acts mentioned in article 87 bis”. There is already enough to fill “the list” with hundreds of prisoners of conscience and thousands of people banned from leaving the country.

Underhandedly, reference is made to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, which sets out the criteria for inclusion on “the list”, to give this manoeuvre a touch of credibility.

But despite the climate of general terror and the state of siege that the Algerian colonial regime has established in Kabylia, despite the mass arrests, despite the torture inflicted on some detainees, despite all the Algerian regime’s attempts to cut the Kabyle people off from its diaspora, the Kabyle resistance is not weakening and is growing. Kabylia is moving surely and inevitably towards its independence through major achievements such as the proclamation of the Kabyle state on 20 April 2024 in front of the UN headquarters in New York.

The objective of this manoeuvre by the Algerian regime is no more and no less than the “seizure or freezing of funds and property held by listed individuals, groups or entities, assets of all kinds, tangible or intangible, movable or immovable”. It’s a long list, from wood and coal to ships and aircraft. Ship and aircraft owners, be docile with the regime!

The tragedy is that the overwhelming majority of detainees are ordinary citizens living very modest lives. Adding misery to misery has been a constant feature of the Algerian regime since 1962.

The vindictive spirit of this “list” is clearly expressed in article 35, which stipulates that “the person or entity on the list is banned from any activity whatsoever”. A double penalty: in addition to the seizure, you are not allowed to work, and too bad for the children!

The dilettantism of the aforementioned committee has already been announced and promises mistakes to people with common names; article 29 warns that “If it is found that (…) there is a real match or similarity between the names, titles or designations, the committee shall order the immediate lifting of the freeze and/or seizure of the applicant’s funds”.

The “committee” is counting on the spirit of collaboration or denunciation of the administration, in its article, inspired by the Petainist era, which stipulates: “Any administration holding information on the funds of persons and entities on the list is subject to the obligation of verification provided for in article 38 of this decree, enabling the immediate implementation of seizure and/or freezing measures”.

This famous “list” is reminiscent of a very sad law from the era of French colonisation, the law of 26 July 1873 known as the Warnier law.

After the Kabylian uprising of 1871, a sequestration order was placed on both individual property and the collective property of the Kabylian tribes, by virtue of the principle of collective responsibility, affecting almost 600,000 hectares. If the tribes were unable to pay a balance, French colonisation led to expropriation. The aim of this law was to “legally despoil” the land of the indigenous Kabyle people in order to create centres of European settlement.
Is the Algerian regime aiming to replace the population so that there is no longer a “Kabyle zero-vote”? The answer lies in the question “What remains of the Warnier law?

Aqvayli Amunnan
Kabylia, 2 August 2024