You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 54.163.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪Blablubbs‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider or colocation provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts and colocation providers may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host or colocation provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a colocation provider's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a colocation web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host or colocation provider (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host or colocation provider.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and requests should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 17:28, 10 March 2024.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪Jon Kolbert‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: See the help page if you are affected .
- Start of block: 18:27, 12 November 2023
- Expiry of block: 18:27, 12 November 2028
Your current IP address is 54.163.179.242. The blocked range is 54.163.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|Massacre in Algeria))
((Multiple issues|
((More citations needed|date=July 2008))
((no footnotes|date=February 2014))
))

((Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Beni Messous massacre
| location         = Sidi Youssef, [[Algeria]]
| date             = 5 September 1997
| partof           = [[Algerian Civil War]]
| fatalities       = 87-150 villagers
| numparts         = 50 militants
))
((Campaignbox Algerian Civil War))((Algerian massacres of 1997))The '''Beni Messous massacre''' took place on the nights from September 5 to 6 September 1997, in Sidi Youssef, a working-class area in the town of [[Béni Messous|Beni Messous]].  At least 84 people were killed.

==Background==
In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a brutal civil conflict that had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the [[Islamic Salvation Front]] (FIS).  Guerrillas fighting the government took refuge in the forest of [[Bainem]] west of [[Algiers]].  The Sidi Youssef neighborhood of [[Béni Messous|Beni Messous]] (see [http://www.aadl.com.dz/Images35000/SYoucef.jpg detailed map]) stands just on the edge of this forest.  Beni Messous is an outlying suburb of [[Algiers]] (see [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/AG/0/Ouled_Beni_Messous.html map]) along the Beni Messous river, home to a large military barracks.  One account indicates that a military search for guerrillas in the forest was underway when the [[massacre]] started.

==Massacre==
At about 10 pm on September 5, 1997, about 50 howling men, some of them dressed in military forms, arrived in Sidi Youssef, wielding knives and machetes, and started breaking into houses and killing those within.  The victims screamed for help and banged pots and pans to alert their neighbors.  Security forces did not arrive until 1 am, despite being stationed close by.  The terrorists killed at least 87 people that night, according to the [[Associated Press]]; no official death toll was issued, and two political parties, [[Socialist Forces Front|FFS]] and [[Movement of Society for Peace|HMS]], claimed about 150 were killed, whereas Daikha Dridi ([[babelmed]][https://web.archive.org/web/20070313144353/http://www.babelmed.net/index.php?menu=14&cont=937&lingua=en]) reports 53.  It was followed by a second night of killing the next day which reportedly((citation needed|date=April 2014)) left another 45 dead.

==Responsibility==
No group claimed responsibility, but militant Islamist groups such as the [[Armed Islamic Group|GIA]] were blamed.((by whom|date=April 2014))  The Algerian government told the [[UN Commission on Human Rights]] ([http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord2000/documentation/commission/e-cn4-2000-3-add1.htm E/CN.4/2000/3/Add.1]) that "A judicial inquiry was opened, and on 7 July 1998 an anti-terrorist raid was carried out on the hideout of the eight culprits. The legal proceedings continue."  It is unclear how to reconcile this with what a general told the UN investigative panel that visited the site on 27 July 1998: "of those who had committed the atrocities only eight were still at large and one was in [[Serkadji prison]]. The leader of the terrorist group had been shot dead 10 days earlier."

[[Amnesty International]] has questioned the state's response, saying that "Beni Messous has the largest barracks and military security centre of the capital, as well as several other gendarmerie and security forces centres from which the site of the massacre is clearly visible. The army barracks of [[Cheraga]] (see [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/AG/1/Cheraga.html map]) is only a few kilometres away. Neighbours telephoned the security forces who refused to intervene saying the matter was under the mandate of the gendarmerie. They called the gendarmerie but received no reply, and the attackers left undisturbed."  However, the aforementioned general argued to the UN panel, with the help of a topographic map, that the army and gendarmerie had been unable to prevent the massacre, saying that "bombs had been set off to stop the army; and electrical power had been turned off by the attackers.  The neighbouring farmers had not been able to provide help, as the terrorists had planted explosives, but they had alerted the security forces whose post divisional headquarters was a few kilometres away."  He added that the government had urged the main family attacked to move somewhere safer earlier, and it had refused, and reported claims that the family in question had been feeding the terrorists and had possibly become rich as a result.

==Aftermath==
Many families fled Sidi Youssef following these massacres; some took refuge in the Beni-Messous stadium and were still there in 2002 [http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wViewCountries/39EF436F03786FD4C1256CBF0030D6E1]((dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes )).  The houses where the massacre took place were demolished by mayoral decree in 2001; only scattered ruins remain, and no plaque marks the spot.

==Eyewitness quotes==
Quoted by Rachid Khiari, [[Associated Press]], [https://archive.today/19990218183305/http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-97/09-07-97/a09wn040.htm Sept. 7]:

: "We heard victims screaming and cries for help, but no one came," one of those who escaped told The Associated Press. 
: "They kicked the door in, took the men, forced them outside, slit their throats," one woman -- the sole survivor of her family -- told The Associated Press.  "They came back, took out my aunt and slit her throat, after slashing open her stomach," said the woman, who identified herself only by her family's name, Benbrahin.  The woman escaped through a window of her home, then hid in a nearby forest until daybreak.

Quoted by Daikha Dridi ([[babelmed]][https://web.archive.org/web/20070313144353/http://www.babelmed.net/index.php?menu=14&cont=937&lingua=en] 2003):

: Everyone remembers that terrible night: “it happened a bit further down, where the disaster stricken people’s town is today. That night, they were putting projectors up to light up the forest so that they could see the terrorists, when one started to hear people screaming” says Rafiq.

==See also==
* [[List of massacres in Algeria]]
* [[List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s]]

==References==
((Reflist))

==External links==
* [https://archive.today/20060319154147/http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-97/09-08-97/b03wn057.htm NewStandard (AP) - 8th]
* [https://archive.today/19990218183305/http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-97/09-07-97/a09wn040.htm NewStandard (AP) - 7th]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313064648/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280361997?open&of=ENG-313 Amnesty International]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313144353/http://www.babelmed.net/index.php?menu=14&cont=937&lingua=en Sidi Youssef later]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050220202107/http://www.un.org/NewLinks/dpi2007/contents.htm UN visit to the site]
* [https://algeria-watch.org/pdf/pdf_en/massacres_algeria.pdf]

((coord|36.7797|N|2.9753|E|source:wikidata|display=title))

((DEFAULTSORT:Beni-Messous Massacre))
[[Category:Massacres during the Algerian Civil War]]
[[Category:1997 in Algeria]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1997]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1997]]
[[Category:September 1997 events in Africa]]
[[Category:Algiers in the Algerian Civil War]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Beni Messous massacre (edit)
Template:Abbr (view source) (protected)
Template:Algerian massacres of 1997 (edit)
Template:Align (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Aligned table (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:By whom (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Campaignbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Campaignbox Algerian Civil War (edit)
Template:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Template:Citation needed (view source) (protected)
Template:Coord (view source) (protected)
Template:Dead link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Delink (view source) (protected)
Template:Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Fix (view source) (protected)
Template:Fix/category (view source) (protected)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Infobox civilian attack (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Longitem (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:More citations needed (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Multiple issues (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Multiple issues/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:No footnotes (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Sidebar (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Template other (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno-no (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Aligned table (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Coordinates (view source) (protected)
Module:Coordinates/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Delink (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:Find sources (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/links (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:InfoboxImage (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Math (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Military navigation (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:Sidebar (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:WPMILHIST Infobox style (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB/nolinks (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB/titleformats (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Beni Messous massacre.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beni_Messous_massacre"