THE Algerian government failed to address the specific charges of summary executions, arbitrary killings, torture and disappearances - made in a report which the human rights group Amnesty International published this month, writes Lara Marlowe.
Instead, Algerian authorities criticised Amnesty for referring to fundamentalist guerrillas as "armed opposition" rather than "terrorists".
"We never use the word `terrorist'," Mr Pierre Sane, the Secretary General of Amnesty said in an interview with The Irish Times. "To do so is to take sides. We prefer to use neutral objective terms."
Was Amnesty more critical of security forces than the fundamentalists who are also committing atrocities?
"We have always said the state is responsible for law and order," Mr Sane explained. "It is the state which claims legitimacy in the use of violence. It is the state which creates prisons, and the justice system. When the system breaks down, it is very serious."
Mr Sane travelled to Brussels and Paris to draw the attention of European leaders to the human rights crisis in Algeria.
"There is an implicit acceptance in Europe that the Algerian government is the lesser of evils, compared to the risk of destabilisation and mass emigration, so the Europeans close their eyes. We must discuss all the victims of human rights abuses in Algeria - not just the foreigners who are murdered. Not just the actions of armed groups, but those of the security forces too.
"The European Union is preparing to negotiate an agreement of association with Algeria," Mr Sane noted. They must take advantage of this to push for the protection of human rights.
The Algerian government had an obligation to abide by the terms of the treaties on human rights which it had signed. The international community had a duty to see that these treaties were respected.
A neglected issue was the fate of Algerians who are refused asylum in Europe. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) claims one of its members was executed after being sent back to Algeria by the Belgium government.
Applications are rejected on the grounds that the Algerian government is responsible for the security of its people," Mr Sane said. "At the same time, European governments are telling their citizens to leave Algeria because it is too dangerous. The contradiction is obvious."