Organisation of Young Free Algerians

The Organisation of Young Free Algerians (OJAL, French Organisation des jeunes Algériens libres) claimed to be an anti-Islamist, pro-government armed group in the Algerian Civil War, active mainly in 1994 and 1995. They claimed responsibility for attacks against civilian Islamist sympathisers. References given below offer the hypothesis that "OJAL" never existed as an independent organization, but was simply a front under which elements of the Algerian security services operated. Notable actions for which OJAL claimed responsibility include:

• the abduction (on November 26, 1993) and killing of Mohamed Bouslimani, president of the Islamic charity El Irshad wa el Islah and founding member of HMS. This abduction was also claimed by the GIA.[1]
• the kidnapping and torture of Islamic Salvation Front founding member[2] and mathematician Mohamed Tedjini Boudjelkha in November 1993; he was released after 5 days.[3]
• the threat in February 1994 that "If a woman is attacked for not wearing a chador, OJAL will take vengeance by purely and simply liquidating 20 women wearing a hijab. (Si une femme est aggressée parce qu'elle ne porte pas le tschador, l'OJAL promet sa vengeance par la liquidation pure et simple de vingt femmes portant le hidjab.)"[hidjab.)"[4]

Aggoun and Rivoire (2004) say OJAL was a name that was made up by a group within the Algerian security service:

"In September 2001, the ex-adjudant Abdelkader Tigha, sub-officer of the DRS who had deserted at the end of 1999, revealed that the acronym OJAL had been invented by the right-hand man of the CTRI ( Centre Territorial de Recherche et d'Investigation / Territorial Research and Investigation Centre) of Blida, Captain Abdelhafid Allouache ..., and that it was subsequently used by other departments of the DRS as a cover in order to murder enemies with impunity." [5]

See also

• Algeria
• Politics of Algeria
• Islamic Salvation Front
• Category:Algerian massacres of the 1990s
• Category:Politics of Algeria

External links

• Algeria Watch : an activist web site concerned with human rights
• Chronology of massacres in Algeria (in French)
• A comment on OJAL on the web site of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency (in French). "The OJAL is a militant group that supported the army in its battle against the Islamists and which perpetrated attacks against the Islamic communities. It was founded in 1993."
• "Lycéennes assassinées pres d'Alger" A report of the assassination of the two school girls which appeared in the newspaper L'Humanité on March 31, 1994. This article cites OJAL's threat of reprisal against veiled women.
• "Algeria accepts the unacceptable", a 1999 article (in English) in Le Monde by Djamel Benramdane.

References

Lounis Aggoun and Jean-Baptiste Rivoire (2004). Françalgérie", crimes et mensonges d’Etats, [Franco-Algeria, Crimes and Lies of the States]. Editions La Découverte. ISBN 2-7071-4747-8. Has a section called "The Organisation of Young Free Algerians, death squadron of the DRS", an excerpt available at [6]. DRS stands for Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité, the Algerian secret service.

Mohamed Samraoui (2003). Chronique des années de sang [Chronicle of the years of blood]. Denoël. ISBN 2-207-25489-5. Claims that the Algerian secret service sponsored some attacks that were attributed to the GIA in order to defame the Islamists. An excerpt that mentions OJAL is at the bottom of this web page: [7].