The fight of Algerian human rights activists continues. No longer from Tizi-Ouzou, Béjaïa or Tamanrasset, but from Paris. Dissolved on the sly in June 2022 by the Algiers administrative court – a decision that officials learned seven months later – the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) was “reactivated in a different legal form from abroad”announced to Monde members of the organization, today in exile in France.
On October 29, the latter submitted the statutes of a new association, called “Collective for the Protection of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights” (CS-LADDH), at the prefecture of Seine-Saint- Denis, in order to continue to denounce arbitrariness in Algeria.
« We are relocating the struggle to France in order to continue our mission of resistanceinsists its president, Adel Boucherguine. We are not going to leave our country's regime alone. » Even when he announces gestures of“appeasement”, like the pardon, on December 25, of 2,471 detainees by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, distrust remains. “We don’t trust this regime”explains Mr. Boucherguine.
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For this 38-year-old journalist, a political refugee in France, it is about continuing to document the repression which targets dissident voices: democratic activists, supporters of Hirak, the popular uprising of 2019, or journalists.
The diaspora “in its historical role”
“There is no longer any witness to arbitrariness in Algeriaassures Aissa Rahmoune, executive director of the association and now a political refugee in France. For a like [sur les réseaux sociaux] or a poem, you can go to prison. Fear is omnipresent. » For this lawyer, you must be “the voice of those who can no longer say anything”. “From Paris, we can alert Algerian and international opinion without risking anything, while pushing the authorities to respect the treaties they have signed”he insists.
To achieve this, the CS-LADDH intends to rely on the League network, “became illegal in Algeria”. Created in 1985, the latter was an emblematic organization of civil society. It has survived all the political convulsions in the country, including the “black decade” of the 1990s. Since the Hirak, it has become the preferred target of supporters of the authoritarian restoration underway in Algeria.
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Several of its leaders, such as its vice-president Kaddour Chouicha, were prosecuted for having participated in the peaceful uprising and criticizing the government. Other members of the organization have been convicted and are in detention. “Even Abdelaziz Bouteflika [président algérien de 1999 à 2019] and General Toufik, all-powerful head of intelligence [de 1990 à 2015], had not dared to dissolve the Leaguerecalls Adel Boucherguine, it has always been tolerated. Today, the country has sunk into complete repression. »
The CS-LADDH also has another ambition: to bring together other Algerian human rights organizations based abroad. “The diaspora is still the only element that escapes the regime and resists it”notes Ali Ait Djoudi, president of the Riposte International association.
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“She is in her historical rolepoints out activist Saïd Salhi, refugee in Belgium and former vice-president of LADDH. During difficult times during the Algerian War [1954-1962]the diaspora had taken over and allowed the national movement to emerge victorious. Let us hope that, as in the past, this mobilization will bring about lasting change for Algeria. »
