Testimonies of Torture: Nacera B. (1998)

Testimonies of Torture

Nacera B. (1998)

Excerpt from a report by Algeria-Watch and Salah-Eddine Sidhoum: Algerie: La machine de mort, October 2003, http://www.algeria-watch.org/fr/mrv/mrvtort/machine_mort/machine_mort.htm

On the 29th June 1998 at 11:30am, around twenty soldiers and armed civilians broke into our home after demolishing the front gate. They proceeded to search the premises and then they left.

That evening, we were informed by the neighbours that our father had been arrested that morning near the market.

On the 30th June 1998 at 4:30pm, the same soldiers and armed civilians returned to our home where they asked for my mother and sister who were out at the time. I was alone at home. Moments later, my mother and sister came home. The soldiers then put us all into a white van after having blindfolded us with veils.

The three of us were driven to the Châteauneuf Centre and led to individual cells where we were undressed and left in our underwear only. It was around 6pm.

Five minutes later, one of the torturers came to take our 60-year-old mother (Fatma B.) from her cell and led her to a large room where a dozen men were present. The latter began to beat, slap and whip her with an electric cable. This lasted for a few minutes.

Then the torturers came to my cell. They blindfolded me and led me to the large room. I was beaten and slapped for a quarter of an hour. The chief gave them the order to take me back to my cell.

The torturers then proceeded to my sister’s cell, Soumia. She underwent the same beating as me, including blows and during this all sorts of obscenities were shouted at her.

At around 7pm, the torturers returned a second time to my cell and led me to the Room for Extraction of Information. Insults were poured down on me. They removed my underwear and began to touch me sexually. Others punched and kicked me in the face. This ordeal lasted around forty-five minutes after which they led me back to my cell.

A time later, they returned to take me for the third time that day to the torture chamber. It was around 8pm. Like the previous time they touched me sexually. This was interspersed with beatings.

At 11pm, I saw my father being dragged along the corridor by a torturer. His legs were bloodied down to his ankles and his beard was completely burnt. I almost fainted. I felt dizzy. I no longer knew whether this was reality or a nightmare.

On the 1st June 1998, at around 4pm, the torturers made Soumia get out of her cell and took her to the torture chamber. They made her lie down on a concrete platform and tied her wrists and ankles so that she could not move. They subsequently forced her to swallow dirty water using the cloth technique, and then moved onto using electricity. During the same session, she was raped with a truncheon, which provoked haemorrhaging. She was howling with pain. To this day, my sister bears the scars of torture on her legs.

The ordeal lasted for a total of eight days. During the entire period, we could hear our father wailing under torture. He died because of the torture he endured on the 13th July 1998 and was buried under the name of X – Algerian in the cemetery of El Alia (plot 244, tomb 101).

We were freed after eight days of imprisonment. A few days later, we saw some of our torturers selling sardines in our neighbourhood in Bachdjarah.

Nacera B.
May 2003