Murdered in a land they could not convert

FORGIVE me for asking, I said but was it true they only found the heads of the seven murdered monks from Tibehrine?

Monsignor Henri Teissier, the Archbishop of Algiers, didn't flinch.

"Yes. On the road to Medea just after the gas station. Three heads were hanging from the tree. The other four heads were lying on the ground, in the grass."

The seven Trappist monks were kidnapped from their mountain monastery south of Algiers on March 27th and beheaded on May 21st.

Little is known of their 56 days of captivity, but fellow priests take comfort from knowing they were probably held together.

Archbishop Teissier, speaking to The Irish Times in his diocesan house in the El Biar suburb of Algiers, said he knew all 19 of the priests and nuns murdered in Algeria over the past 2 1/2 years. About 300 remain.

"This is where it all started " he said, as if plunging back into a nightmare. "On October 29th 1993, a French consular employee who had been kidnapped was released here. She handed me the letter from her kidnappers, saying that all foreigners had to leave or be killed. I was the first one to read it."

A few weeks later, 12 Croatian technicians were murdered just 3 km from the Tibehrine monastery.

They were castrated, then died with their throats slashed.

Algerian newspapers published photographs of a guerrilla leader named Sayah Attia, who had allegedly carried out the massacre.

On Christmas Eve, the monks of Tibehrine recognised Attia when he came to the monastery demanding money, medicine and a doctor. "Abbot Christian told him they didn't have any money, nor could they give them medicine. But the monks never refused medical care to anyone.

For 15 months, the monks stayed on, caring for wounded soldiers as well as guerrillas. In the meantime, 11 priests and nuns were killed.

Archbishop Teissier rattles off the details with sad resignation: "We had our first attack on May 8th, 1994. A Marist brother and a Little Sister of the Assumption were shot in the library in the Casbah.

"On October 23rd, 1994, two Spanish sisters were killed in Bab El Oued.

"On December 27th, 1994, four priests were murdered in Tizi Ouzou, right after the French Airbus was hijacked.

"On September 3rd, 1995, two nuns from Our Lady of the Apostles in Belcourt were killed; they had worked there for 31 years and everyone in the neighbourhood knew them.

"On November 10th, 1995, two Little Sisters were shot in Kouba. One survived and is in France now.

Archbishop Teissier often wonders what went through the minds of the assassins before they beheaded the monks. "I think they are outside their own conscience, he said. "They work on their understanding of Islamic law. They have decided they must kill the enemies of the Lord."

Several Catholic religious orders, including the White Fathers and Sisters and the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, were founded in Algeria.

Many Catholic clergy sympathised with the Arabs in the 1954-1962 war against France, and they stayed on, taking Algerian nationality after independence. Yet in 130 years of Catholic religious presence, scarcely 1,000 Algerians converted to Catholicism.

"At first, the church thought Algerians would become Christians," Monsignor Teissier explained. "After 20, 30, 40, 50 years, they realised Algerians would not convert. We created a different church here. Here Christians are at the service of a Muslim society."

The experience of recent has changed him, Monsignor Teissier said. "When you celebrate the Eucharist, you cannot help but remember that Jesus was murdered by human violence - in the name of religion. We have to understand the risks in this society. We are walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We cannot look at the Cross of Jesus as we have done before. Before, it was an abstract thing. Now it is a daily reality."

Reuter reports from Paris:

Muslim fundamentalist rebels said yesterday Algeria's referendum on a new constitution had been rigged and farcical and was a threat to the credibility of future elections.

"The farce has taken place, as expected," said a statement from the leadership in exile of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The statement was faxed to Reuter in Paris.

"As expected, the results announced did not conform to reality. Rigging and exaggeration are such that they deprive the operation of any credibility," it said.

According to official figures, 85.8 per cent of voters in last week's poll backed President Liamine Zeroual's proposed constitution, which bans Islamic parties and strengthens the president's powers.

FIS said the population had been completely indifferent to the poll, which, it said, "deprives the rulers of the credibility they were seeking and threatens the credibility of the polls they plan for the coming months".

It called on President Zeroual to end repression and open serious political dialogue.

The Algerian Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Ouyahia, said recently that government forces had won the battle against Muslim rebels and guerrillas "residual terrorism" would be wiped out in the near future.

More than 60,000 people have died in Algeria's violence since 1992 when the authorities annulled a general election in which FIS had taken a huge lead.