At the village of Bentalha, west of Algiers (Algeria), on the night of September 22-23, 1997, more than 200 villagers were killed by armed guerrillas. Responsibility for this massacre and that of Sidi Rais was claimed by the Armed Islamic Group in a press release from London on September 26 (according to Agence France_Presse.) The troops stationed immediately outside the town did nothing to stop it, according to survivors, nor were they attacked[1] (http://www.hrw.org/worldreport/Mideast_01.htm).
Human Rights Watch report (http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/mideast/algeria.html)
Amnesty International report (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280361997?open&of=ENG_DZA)
The Economist (http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displayStory.cfm?Story-ID=418247)
Le Matin (http://www.lematin_dz.net/ledossierdujeudi14112002/les%20familles.htm)
Paris, September 23 {No.97-157} - UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor today condemned the massacre perpetrated in Bentalha, near Algiers on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
Mr Mayor has repeatedly condemned these senseless barbaric massacres and stressed the need for a unanimous reaction: "condemnation must be universal, censure total.
Everywhere in the world, voices - those of political leaders as well as those of religious, cultural, educational organisations, etc. - must make themselves heard to say no to such slaughter; to say that they are unbearable, unjustifiable.
At the village of Bentalha, about 15 km south of Algiers, on the night of September 22-23, 1997, more than 200 villagers (according to Amnesty International) were killed by armed guerrillas.
Bentalha (Arabic بن طلحة), a town a few km south of Baraki (see map), a satellite town of Algiers, voted FIS in the elections, and many inhabitants were initially in favor of the Islamist guerrilla groups which began fighting the government after the elections' cancellation; some joined them.
On September 21, at 11:30 pm, explosions rocked the Hai el-Djilali neighborhood on the southwest side of Bentalha, and attackers began pouring in from the orange groves to the neighborhood's southeast.
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