The European Parliament delegation visiting Algiers this week has sought information on the fate of more than 30 missing civilians - a mere fraction of the more than 1,000 Algerians believed to have been abducted by security forces.
Yet Mr Abdelkader Hadjar, the speaker of the Algerian parliament's foreign affairs commission, assured his visitors that there was a maximum of 31 people missing in Algeria today; even the official government National Observatory on Human Rights admits to having registered reports of 1,928 disappearances between 1994 and 1996.
Mr Hadjar promised the MEPs' request would be "processed by official channels". As the USbased group Human Rights Watch has learned, "processing by official channels" means that in the rare instances when the Algerian police respond to queries regarding missing people, it is to deny that the disappeared are in official custody.
In a report released today, Nei- ther Among the Living Nor the Dead: State-Sponsored "Dis appearances" in Algeria, the group concludes that "there is overwhelming evidence that the security forces are responsible for many hundreds of unresolved cases of `disappearance'.
"The phenomenon is of such proportions," the report continues, "that it could only persist with the sanction of the highest levels of national authority. While high officials have admitted that persons have `gone missing' in state custody, we are aware of no high-level acknowledgement that the practice of forcible disappearance is rampant and ongoing, nor of any efforts by the Algerian authorities to bring to justice those responsible."
As noted by the report, armed groups also abduct civilians, particularly young women. Algerian newspapers estimate the number of captives held by armed groups at more than 2,000.
Mr Karim Khelili (35), a mentally handicapped man, may owe his freedom to the arrival of the EU delegation in Algiers. He and his brother Farid are sons of the president of the Algerian national lawyers' syndicate, Mr Mahmoud Khelili, one of a handful of Algerian advocates who continue to defend Islamists. Mr Khelili and his family have been targeted by security forces three times in the past two years.
Last Wednesday evening, Mr Khelili's two sons were arrested by soldiers and policemen, who beat Karim severely. Farid Khelili was threatened with torture but released a few hours later. For three days, Karim was held in an unknown place, while his family feared for his life. He was freed on Saturday afternoon, on the eve of the MEPs' arrival in Algiers.
Human Rights Watch has suggested measures that should be taken by the Algerian government, the UN, the EU and the US to end the disappearances of civilians in Algeria: they include linking negotiations on an EU trade agreement and financial assistance to the issue, as well as public denunciation by the EU of Algerian government complicity in the disappearances. But with EU officials desperate to maintain even their extremely limited access to the country, strong public criticism of the practice is unlikely.
The authorities have forbidden the MEPs from leaving flowers in memory of Algerians killed in recent massacres.