CAIRO Ñ Algerian President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika has urged the
international community to agree on a definition of terrorism.
"It is worth considering a proposal to convene an international
conference to define terrorism," Bouteflika said. "In order to combine our
efforts in the same struggle, it is absolutely essential that we define our
common enemy.
But the Algerian president rejected any link between terrorism and the
struggle for what he termed self-determination. "We should not link
terrorism with the cause of the Palestinian people."
Algeria's military released its first details of the nearly decade-old
insurgency war. The military said Algerian insurgents comprise five groups,
the leaders of which are Armed Islamic Group, known as the GIA, and the
Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call. The military said the insurgents
killed 38,000 military and security personnel from 1994 until 2000.
Algerian commanders who addressed the conference said the GIA has 60
insurgents who operate in cells of no more than four people. The Salafist
group is said to have up to 350 members, far less than Western estimates
that assert that the Al Qaida-aligned organization has grown to 4,000.
A military statement said the attacks caused damage of $2 billion. In
all, 915 schools were torched by anti-government forces.
The conference contains about 250 officials and experts in
counterterrorism. Members of the London-based Amnesty International and the
New York-based Human Rights Watch are also attending the three-day
conference.
Islamic insurgents continued attacks during the weekend conference. The
official Algerian news agency reported that suspected Islamic extremists
killed 21 people from the same family in the northwest province of Chlef.
The attack was reported in a village about 200 kilometers west of
Algiers. The Armed Islamic Group is known to be active in the area and the
attack brought to 1,300 the number of those killed in the insurgency war in
the country.
On Saturday, Algerian media reported that three insurgents were killed
by security forces during a search-and-destroy operation in the moutainous
region near the Moroccan border. Another five insurgents were killed in the
southeast and western portions of the country.
