Algiers—The City Of Perpetual Tension

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28343, 31 July 1957, Page 15

Algiers—The City Of Perpetual Tension

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

ALGIERS.; Citizens of Algiers live in a perpetual state of tension wonder- 1 ing all the time what will happen next. The main preoccupation is when and where the next terrorist bomb will go off, and what kind of trouble will follow in its wake. 1 On June 11, at the funerals of some of the 10 persons killed by a bomb explosion on a clifftop dancehall two days earlier, angry Europeans stormed through the streets of Algiers, beating at least five Moslems to death and wrecking hundreds of Moslem-owned shops. The terrorism is the work of insurgents, fighting in a two-and-a-half-year-old Moslem nationalist uprising against French rule in Algeria.

Europeans do not seem to be afraid. But they are tense and watchful. They say that you cannot be afraid all the time. One gets used to the uncertainty—to not knowing, for instance, whether one’s children will be blown up by a bomb on the way home from school—and carries on normally. Thus, the streets of Algiers, with its big modern buildings dotting the Mediterranean hillside, look like those of any other busy modem city, except for the presence everywhere of armed men in various uniforms.

Moslem and European women jostle one another in the markets under the eyes of police carrying submachine-guns. Children play in city squares under the noses of tommyguns. Tl’oops and police are on patrol or on guard everywhere. On buses, uniformed “territorials,’’ or home guardsmen, search passengers’ parcels and women’s handbags for concealed bombs. '

An armed guard is aboard buses travelling out of town. Men sit on stools at the entrance to hotels, bars and shops examining parcels, briefcases and bags, and sometimes searching customers for arms. A car backfiring in Algiers is liable to make people scatter for cover. At any moment, jeeploads of paratroops in red berets are liable to speed through the streets on their way to the scene of an “incident,’’ to carry out a search —after a report that a bomb has been “planted”—or to comb a district for suspects. An incidental result of this has been a step towards solving the city’s traffic problem. Military authorities banned parking on both sides of the streets, a custom which led to big traffic jams and prevented troops from getting through in a hurry. All but a few of the alleys leading into the hillside Casbah (the old Arab quarter) of Algiers have been sealed off with barbed wire entanglements to prevent terrorists from escaping into the crowded alleys after throwing a bomb, or shooting down a European or a Moslem regarded as not giving the insurgents enough support. The barbed wire ring around the Casbah also helped to protect Moslems inside from European rioters who considered storming the place on June 11. Some Europeans claim that it is possible to recognise terrorist killers before they start shooting. They say: “If you see two showily-dressed young Moslems with perfumed hair, get out of the way fast. They are killers—paid in advance. So they are dressed up.” ’ Others declare that the insurgents can terrorise a man’s trusted servants into killing him by saying: “If you do not do it, we shall kill you.” A sure sign of a terrorist incioff the same scene, is the disappearance of Moslems from the streets. They know that they are likely to be beaten up by indignant young Europeans. On June 11, at the funerals of terrorist victims, it was worse. The Moslems knew it in advance. The squares near the Casbah, where hundreds of Moslems daily 101 l in the shade of palm trees, were deserted. Only a few Moslem men ventured forth. On the coast road, by the cemetery, one Moslem was dragged off a lorry and beaten to death with chunks of wood and iron in a few minutes. Another was battered to death sitting in the cab of his lorry which was stormed by youthful rioters. Veiled Moslem women in white robes were not touched. The day after this outburst of fury, everything was back to normal. Moslems were back lolling in the city squares. But all this has left behind it an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between the 192,000 Europeans and

1162,000 Moslems in this North African city. And everyone today ’is wondering where it will end. I Even the air hostesses on aircraft belonging to one' French airline serving Algiers, have given up expressing the ritual “landing •wish” that their passengers will enjoy their stay here. They have been instructed to say simply: “We are about to land at Algiers.”