ANSAmed

(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 9 - Dakhira, or "Memory", is the new centre set up, with the assistance of the European Union, by the Djazairouna association to "fight against oblivion" and remember the thousands of victims of terrorism in Algeria. Cherifa Kheddar, president of the association of the relatives of the victims of terrorism named Djazairouna ("Our Algeria") located in Blida (50 km west of Algiers), stated that "It is a sort of databank for future generations, so that they can know what happened and what the policy of 'National reconciliation' wants to erase from memory". The initiative is part of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights programme set up in 2006 (in the context of EU initiatives for the Countries of the Southern shores) with a budget amounting to 5 million euros. To date Dakhira collected the portraits of 700 victims from the Blida region alone. Pictures, videos, writings, witness accounts on the circumstances of the killing, kidnapping or rape suffered by victims in the black decade that was the 90s, when Algeria was involved in a civil war and the blind violence of radical Islamic movements. Kheddar explained that at first "we will have to make public what really happened in our Country, the drama suffered by the victims, the violation of their rights in the region of Blida, to then expand the project to other regions". Kheddar, who miraculously survived an attack by an armed group which in 1996 killed her brother and sister in front of her eyes, added that "Society must acknowledge their suffering and their resistance". Aside from collecting data on the victims, Djazirouna is also putting together a report on all the "policies of impunity" started up by the State of Algeria in favour of armed groups. (ANSAmed).