“A serious matter” which should not be forgotten. In an open letter, a dozen organizations of the Algerian diaspora urge Emmanuel Macron to “do not conceal” during his visit to Algeria, from Thursday August 25 to Saturday August 27, the question of “degradation” human rights in this country, and “not to support this despotic drift of the Algerian regime”.
Thirteen organizations – including Debout l’Algérie, Citizen Action for Algeria, Groupe Algérie Droit Devant, the Collective of Families of Disappeared in Algeria or the Coordination of Algerians of the World – sent this open letter to the French President on Saturday, which AFP became aware of on Sunday.
These organizations say “to hope” that this visit “will be fruitful for the two countries, strongly linked by history, geography, culture, language and all the exchanges and partnerships woven since independence”, they say in the open letter. On the human rights situation, they nonetheless claim that “nearly ten thousand arrests followed by at least a thousand abusive pre-trial detentions in violation of the penal code have been credited to this regime since the beginning” Hirak pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
According to the signatories of the letter, “the response of the Algerian authorities to popular aspirations has been an unprecedented repressive policy”. Today, “the few achievements (…) on freedom of expression, organization, demonstration, press and political activity are in sharp decline, even on the way to disappearance”.
The “Algerian diaspora is not spared because of its involvement and its massive and continuous support for the popular movement”continue the organizations, citing retaliatory measures in travel to Algeria.
“Travellers whose only fault was to have expressed an opinion, were victims of arrests and decisions banning them from leaving Algerian territory. Activists, political activists, journalists residing on French territory are being prosecuted by the Algerian justice and their families residing in Algeria are sometimes worried”they detail.