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Viewing cable 07ALGIERS259, COPS AND ROBBERS: ALGERIA COPES WITH MOUNTING CRIME

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07ALGIERS259 2007-03-01 09:53 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Algiers
VZCZCXYZ0036
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAS #0259/01 0600953
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 010953Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3115
INFO RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 1652
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6502
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1529
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2093
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 2891
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0134
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 5901
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY 1189
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 8521
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0400
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0868
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
UNCLAS ALGIERS 000259 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER ASEC ECON SOCI CASC AG
SUBJECT: COPS AND ROBBERS: ALGERIA COPES WITH MOUNTING CRIME 
 
1.  SUMMARY: The recent robbery of Algiers' consular chief at 
knifepoint typifies the rising crime rate in Algeria.  Aggressive, 
violent and often armed theft has spiked even as insurgent violence 
has generally diminished over the last four years.  Public 
perception, media coverage and police admission all underscore the 
trend.  Official statistics depict modest crime rates by European 
and American city standards, and the rise is less pronounced for 
more severe crimes like murder and kidnapping.  Moreover, the degree 
of overlap between kidnappings, organized crime and terrorism 
remains difficult to assess.  Though increased crime does not appear 
to be a key voting issue as Algerians evaluate their politicians, it 
has undermined confidence in the judicial system and the police. 
END SUMMARY 
 
PUBLIC PULSE, VITAL STATISTICS 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  Recently, conoff has questioned consular applicants and 
conducted focus groups with residents of two poor Algiers 
neighborhoods.  Interviews focused on crime categories tracked in 
the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report: violent, property, and drug 
offenses.  Respondents believe crime is rising moderately and worry 
especially that thieves target cell phones and cars.  Three people 
reported assailants had recently punched through their car windows 
to steal mobile phones while they were slowed in traffic.  City 
streets are busy by night compared with five years ago, but 
interviewees are cautious; most women interviewed said they avoid 
public areas at night.  Print media dedicate prominent column inches 
to the crime story in coverage that tends toward the sensational but 
refrains from pointing fingers at the government.  The press treats 
crime as a continuing drama, each article a new installation in the 
narrative. 
 
3.  Interior ministry statistics bear out the public's disquiet. 
(Note: These numbers are as reported in Algerian newspapers and by 
police contacts.  The GoA did not respond to our requests for 
comprehensive crime statistics.  End note.)  Thefts were up a hefty 
61% in 2005, the most recent year for which most numbers were 
available.  The count of non-terrorism-related murders climbed from 
174 in 2004 to 205 in 2005.  Kidnappings were also up, from 82 in 
2004 to 101 in 2005.  The number of serious crimes is by no means 
alarming in a country of over 32 million people, yet crime has 
become more visible to the population as the fear of terrorism has 
receded.  Another indicator of the growing problem is visible in the 
prisons: the justice ministry's 127 penitentiaries struggle to house 
some 51,000 prisoners.  There is little room to incarcerate the 
estimated 62,000 people arrested in 2006, according to ministry 
contacts, and many will receive short sentences, swift amnesty, or 
even walk free as a result. 
 
WHO ARE THE PERPETRATORS? 
------------------------- 
 
4.  Algerians agree on who they think the criminals are: young males 
from their teens to mid-30s.  When asked why these youth commit 
crimes, interviewees offer a catalogue of Algeria's social ills. 
Unemployment is endemic -- estimates from informed sources suggest 
it exceeds 35%.  The population has quadrupled since independence, 
and the average age falls squarely into the crime-committing age 
cohort.  Drug use is also up.  Many Algerians believe the government 
has failed generally to provide positive social outlets for young 
people.  Two respondents offered that Algeria's decade-long 
experience with terrorism deeply marked the fabric of society, 
unraveling trust and community.  While optimism about the security 
situation is apparent and people speak of "the time of terrorism" in 
the past tense, sentiment is not upbeat across the board.  One cafe 
owner spoke of a "deficit of hope," observing that people doubt that 
current economic good times will trickle down and are skeptical that 
proposed political reforms are serious.  Meanwhile, the cost of 
living is rising and nearly everyone we interviewed under 30 has 
given hard thought to emigration. (On learning of conoff's visit, 
one group of twenty-something men paused during a televised soccer 
match to wave their passports and chant "visa, visa.") 
 
THE CRIME/TERROR NEXUS 
---------------------- 
 
5.  Kidnappings in the Kabylia -- the mountainous, predominantly 
Berber area south and east of Algiers -- made headlines in 2006. 
They were often initiated at false roadblocks and sometimes ended in 
ransom, rape or murder.  Much speculation whirls around whether 
these were the acts of terrorists still holed up in the highlands. 
Police contacts posit that 1990s-era terrorist cells in the maquis 
eventually devolved into organized brigands.  Robberies, roadblocks 
and kidnappings that were initially related to acquiring resources 
and sowing terror, they say, gradually crime became a raison d'etre 
for many.  Looking south to the centuries-old Saharan smuggling 
trade in drugs, arms, immigrants and, more recently, cigarettes, it 
is widely believed that Al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic 
Maghreb (AQIM -- the former GSPC) controls a piece of the action. 
Salafist "emir" Mokhtar Belmokhtar allegedly led a smuggling ring 
before he and his entire group joined AQIM.  Press accounts report 
that AQIM cadres have intermarried with tribes and smugglers in the 
south to build up shelter and a constituency. 
 
6.  The Algerian government is giving new attention to organized 
crime apart from terrorism.  Ali Tounsi, head of the national 
police, announced in February 2007 that officers would be authorized 
to infiltrate organized crime groups in undercover operations.  A 
recent narcotics bust revealed links to Colombian cartels and 
prompted an interior ministry request of assistance from U.S. drug 
enforcement officials.  Additionally, bad press on trafficked 
clandestine immigrants who are dying en route to Europe has brought 
daylight to an issue the government has tended to ignore. 
 
POLITICAL FALLOUT? 
------------------ 
 
7.  Crime is not yet an issue of importance to voters, based on our 
interviews, despite upcoming parliamentary and local elections. 
Interviews suggest that security, the economy and quality of life 
are priority issues for voters.  Crime has a bit role: it is one 
more reason for those unhappy with the current government to lament, 
but it does not significantly detract in the view of those who 
credit President Bouteflika with restoring security.  Nonetheless, 
the government feels compelled to take symbolic, well-publicized 
action.  President Bouteflika singled out the "fight against 
banditry" for priority action in a September 2006 speech opening the 
judicial year.  Algeria toughened prison sentencing guidelines in 
late 2006.  As a result, cell phone theft is now punishable with a 
mandatory multi-year minimum sentence.  Fall 2006 also saw several 
large-scale, day-long crime sweeps that culminated in arrests and 
press conferences.  The national police and national gendarmerie 
have both launched massive recruiting drives.  The police force 
plans to expand to 200,000 people by 2009, while the gendarmerie 
expects nearly to double its ranks over the next several years. 
 
8.  Despite these actions, it is apparent that another victim of 
increasing crime is the reputation of the judicial system and police 
as institutions.  The courts are viewed (accurately) as slow and 
overburdened.  Several interviewees argued that presidential 
amnesties for criminals, which regularly accompany national 
holidays, are too frequent.  (Note: These are unrelated to the 
terrorism-related national reconciliation amnesties of 1999 and 
2005.  End note.)  Why turn in a car thief, they ask, when he'll be 
out of jail and out for revenge in six months?  Police contacts 
stress that they cannot turn from fighting terrorism to fighting 
crime on a dime, especially because they remain very active on the 
counterterrorism front.  Popular opinion has largely discounted this 
nuance: police efforts at preventing crime and catching perpetrators 
struck interviewees as wholly inadequate.  As one popular joke puts 
it, all's fair in the hunt for parking in Algiers, but don't take 
that spot in front of the local police station -- your car radio 
will never survive the night. 
 
FORD