Government Blamed For Massacres Islamic Party, Former Officers Say Soldiers Killed Thousands

The Algerian Islamic party whose banishment sparked a bloody insurgency six years ago Sunday lambasted the military-backed government and demanded a probe of recent massacres.

But the Islamic Salvation Front, whose military wing is maintaining a truce with the army, still urged “a serious national dialogue capable of ending the bloodbath and bringing a return to peace.” It called on the government to release or lift restrictions on its leaders.

Also on Sunday, a British newspaper quoted an unidentified Algerian police officer as saying that he took part in the massacres and that government soldiers disguised as Islamic fundamentalists slaughtered civilians in nighttime attacks.

Since Jan. 11, 1992, when the government canceled the results of elections it appeared to be losing, the insurgency has left more than 75,000 people dead, including an estimated 1,000 people alone since the beginning of the year in massacres blamed on the more militant Armed Islamic Group.

Eleven more civilians were killed overnight Saturday in Bordj-Khriss, in the Bouira area of central Algeria, Algiers authorities said Sunday.

The latest wave of massacres, in western rural areas, took place “in regions where the majority of the population voted for the FIS during the December 1991 elections,” the Front said.

The Front accused government-organized “death squads” of killing thousands of people along highways “to terrorize the rest of the population.”

In a related development, an Algerian police officer seeking asylum in Britain said he participated in the massacre and torture of defenseless civilians under orders, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

The newspaper quoted the unidentified police officer and a colleague as saying government soldiers disguised as Islamic fundamentalists slaughtered entire families in nighttime raids.

The Observer said the two policemen “gave detailed evidence” of the government’s involvement not only in the massacres, but also in spying on government opponents and killings of journalists and entertainers.