An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres
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An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres is a collection of essays investigating the massacres that accompanied the Algerian Civil War and analysing their causes and impacts. The book was edited by Abbas Aroua, Youcef Bedjaoui and Meziane Ait-Larbi, who also wrote a number of the essays inside, with forewords by Noam Chomsky and Lord Avebury. It was published by Hoggar Books in 1999. Most of the essays in it are in English, but many are in French.
The book is divided into seven sections. The first, Massacres and Victims, analyses the massacres themselves, presenting lists of massacres by date and place and estimates of numbers killed at each, reproducing victims' testimonies, and attempting to correlate the timings of the massacres with other events. The second, Intents and Perpetrators, analyses the political motivation for the massacres, arguing that the faction of the Armed Islamic Group responsible had been effectively taken over by the Algerian secret services, and that the targets chosen - usually villages which had strongly supported the Islamic Salvation Front - along with the testimonies of survivors, further suggested direct government complicity. The third, National Responses, analyses the statements of Algerian media, government, military, political parties, and NGOs regarding the massacres. The fourth, International Responses, likewise analyses the statements of Western nations and their citizens, Arab nations and their citizens, and transnational actors such as multinational corporations and the UN. A brief fifth section, Historical Perspective, recounts French massacres during the conquest of Algeria and the Algerian War of Independence, comparing them to the massacres of the 1990s. The sixth section, Legal Perspective (in French only) discusses appropriate responses to the massacres in national and international law. A final chapter, Photographic Account, reproduces photos related to the massacres. The appendix includes a chronology, along with a glossary and index.
