On 21 August 1994 at 11am, Mohamed Boughedda was arrested by intelligence agents at his workplace, in the prefecture of Jijel, located just 100m from the headquarters of the operational military sector of Jijel. His family's untiring attempts to find him – in particular the steps taken towards the legal authorities, the secret services and the Jijel military sector – have come to nothing.

As for Mahmoud Grida, accused of being a member of the Islamic Salvation Front (AIS), he was arrested on 13 April 1997 at 9am by members of a pro-government militia – the Self-Defence Group (GLD), under the command of Bousbia Salah – in the mountainous region of Mechta Larebaa in Oudjana, also in the province of Jijel. He was then taken to the headquarters of the operational military sector of Jijel, where he was held incommunicado for two years and, according to witnesses, subject to severe torture, before disappearing in March 1999.

According to national police, who issued on 10 December 2006 a death certificate to his relatives without handing over his body, Mahmoud died "in the ranks of terrorist groups".

In view of the facts, Alkarama urged the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to ask the Algerian authorities to take all necessary measures to shed light on the respective fates of Mohamed Boughedda and Mahmoud Grida and to release them immediately if they are still alive, or hand their bodies to their relatives and to compensate them.

It is important to remember that these are only two among several hundred cases of enforced disappearances that happened in the Jijel region between 1993 and 1997 and have been submitted by Alkarama to the WGEID over the past five years. During this period, numerous abductions of civilians were perpetrated by the Algerian armed forces, especially by supporters of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

"Submitting today to the UN Working Group the cases of Bougheda and Grida, abducted by the Algerian security forces in 1994 and 1997 respectively, represents for us a strong message of our firm commitment to our right to truth and justice," says Moussa Bourefi, President of the Association Mish'al of children of victims of enforced disappearance in Algeria. "This is an opportunity to recall that the massive violations of human rights by the Algerian security forces after the 11 January 1992 coup are in no case "isolated outbursts". Instead, they are systematic practices carried out following orders given from senior State officials, an aspect which gives them the character of crimes against humanity, crimes recognised as inalienable."

Alkarama also asked the WGEID to remind the Algerian authorities of their obligations under international human rights instruments, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by Algeria in September 1989, which requires to end the impunity for the perpetrators of those crimes committed during the 1990s and to shed light on the respective fates of all victims of disappearance.

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