CCPR/C/121/D/2283/2013
the Optional Protocol to the Covenant entered into force for the State party on 12 December
1989. The author is represented by the Alkarama Foundation.
1.2
The author of the communication requested interim measures of protection in the
context of Ordinance No. 06-01 of 27 February 2006 on the implementation of the Charter
for Peace and National Reconciliation, and specifically in respect of article 46, which
specifies that it is a criminal offence “for anyone, by their statements, writings or any other
act, to use or exploit the wounds of the national tragedy to harm the institutions of the
People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, weaken the State, impugn the honour of its
representatives who have served it with dignity or tarnish the country’s international
image”. He thus asked the Committee to request that the State party refrain from harassing
or intimidating him for the steps he had taken with the Committee. He also requested
interim measures for Mahmoud Boudjema. In the hope that he was still alive, the author
requested the Committee to ask the State party to place him under the protection of the law
and to proceed with his release. The request for interim measures was transmitted on 16
August 2013, the Committee having recalled, in its communication with the State party,
rule 92 of its rules of procedure, and in this context, specifically having requested the State
party to “refrain from invoking national legislation, including Ordinance No. 06-01 on the
implementation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, against the author and
members of his family”.
The facts as presented by the author
2.1
Mahmoud Boudjema, father of 10 children, lived in the village of Emir Abdelkader,
in Jijel wilaya (governorate). The region, mountainous and isolated, had a strong military
presence in the 1990s. The author alleges that thousands of persons in the region were
victims of summary executions, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances following the
cancellation of legislative elections. As for Mahmoud Boudjema, he was arrested at his
home by soldiers of the people’s national army on the night of 19 to 20 August 1996. That
night, several uniformed soldiers pounded on the door of the family home while others
broke a window in the bedroom of one of his sons, Abdelkader Boudjema, author of this
communication. With Kalashnikovs aimed at Abdelkader Boudjema, the author’s mother,
H.B., complied with the soldiers’ orders and opened the front door. The soldiers, who were
seeking Ramadan Boudjema, searched the house and asked to see the identification papers
of Mahmoud Boudjema. On the commander’s orders, they were prepared to leave, until a
member of the military in a balaclava arrived, stating that the person they sought was in fact
Mahmoud Boudjema. The soldiers then brutally proceeded to arrest Mahmoud Boudjema
without mentioning the reasons for the arrest or the place where he would be taken. His
children remained with their mother, who had lost consciousness.
2.2
The next morning Mahmoud Boudjema’s family discovered that an operation led by
Commander S.L. had resulted in the arrest of some 20 persons in the village of Emir
Abdelkader. A.B., a resident of the village, had driven the persons in question in his bus,
which had been commandeered by the army, to the centre of Jijel, to a barracks at the Jijel
military district headquarters.
2.3
Mahmoud Boudjema’s wife, along with the families of others who had been arrested
that night, visited the Jijel military district headquarters; the soldiers denied that her
husband was there and even that they had conducted the raid on the night of 19 to 20
August. She subsequently visited the barracks several times, without obtaining any
information about the fate of her husband. In December 1996, M.B. and R.B., both of
whom had been arrested with Mahmoud Boudjema, stated that they had been held with Mr.
Boudjema the night of the arrest, before being separated. This was the only information
received by Mahmoud Boudjema’s family.
2.4
The author alleges that a climate of generalized terror reigned in the Jijel region and
that in March 1997 a reprisal operation was conducted by the Emir Abdelkader
gendarmerie brigade against the family members of persons disappeared on the night of 19
to 20 August who had tried to find out what had happened to their relatives. They were
reportedly detained and tortured for 14 days. One of the victims of this operation reported
that S.G., the head of the brigade, told him “if you do not confess that you support terrorist
groups, you will suffer the same fate as your father”.
2
GE.17-21416