Long-Distance Call to Algiers

The United States and a number of European nations have taken the unusual step of suggesting an international inquiry into the terrorism that has claimed at least 60,000 lives in Algeria since 1992. The sniffy response from the military-backed regime in Algiers is that what has been going on is an internal matter and outside intervention is unwanted. An internal affair it may technically be. But the continuing slaughter of villagers by Islamic extremists is also of a magnitude and savagery that evoke international compassion and demand every effort to stop it. Algerian authorities seem helpless or unwilling to protect the people they rule. They can’t explain why. Perhaps an objective foreign inquiry could.

The carnage began after the government canceled elections that the Islamic Salvation Front appeared to be on the way to winning. The killing spree mounted by the front and another extremist group has been directed almost entirely at civilians. Presumably the intent has been to expose the government’s weakness and lack of legitimacy. That weakness has been on shocking display for all to see. Week after week, security forces have failed to come to the aid of besieged communities that are sometimes just a few hundred meters from military camps. Cowardice may be one explanation for this passivity. A decision by the government to let the killing go on so as to further discredit the Islamic radicals while at the same time justifying its own repressive powers may be a no less likely explanation.

No nation is proposing and certainly none is willing to contribute to military intervention in Algeria. But the callous ineffectiveness of the Algiers regime has reached criminal proportions. It’s right for other governments to say so. Maybe, at some point, Algerian authorities can be shamed into defending their people.