COPS AND ROBBERS: ALGERIA COPES WITH MOUNTING CRIME

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