In its latest edition, the Algerian daily Liberté made her one with a folder on one of the main sources of current funding of local Islamist groups: kidnapping for ransom in the key. Tizi Ouzou region is particularly affected by this scourge.
"In September 2008, with the kidnapping of a wealthy entrepreneur in the town of maatkit, Tizi-Ouzou were kidnapping her 34th. The last removal dating back to last January and took place in the town of Ait Yahia. "
Before retraining as innovate in kidnappings in series, the GSPC had recourse to racketeering, the hold-up and various traffic all the more lucrative than the others. Hunted on this land by the police, he quickly found another way to raise money easily and without too much risk: the kidnapping for ransom. The booty amassed is then milled in parallel circuits before funding of the attacks or simply enrich the families of terrorists.
"In Boumerdes, surveys have been conducted on the sudden wealth of some families. It turned out that almost all had at least one relative in the bush. "
The GSPC, which recently affiliated with Al Qaeda which is an industry rife in the Maghreb, especially Algeria, where it infests the maquis in Kabylia, engages in the practice juicy to the dismay of wealthy families that could fulfill huge amount in ransom. Bloodthirsty hordes were soon specialized in kidnapping of wealthy entrepreneurs to collect plenty of easy money to finance new attacks. These kidnappings have become so frequent that they do not surprise or unduly n'émeuvent more public opinion in Algeria. People have become accustomed to regularly read the press announcement of yet another kidnapping. On everyone's lips is the same question comes up: " Who will be the next victim? "Thou shalt serial rape, my son!
The abduction phenomenon is recent but quickly gathered momentum. It hit like a plague on a region already hard hit by Islamist terrorism. It has attracted many vocations and even exceeded the field of terrorism to invest than the crime.
"When two civilians were kidnapped in 2005 in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou, few people suspected that this phenomenon would take on such a scale until it reaches a speed of 15 kidnappings a month, five to ten Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou. Based on cases reported to the security services - as most families do not report the disappearances and prefer to meet the ransom - the Minister of State, Minister of the Interior revealed that 375 people were kidnapped in 2007. 115 kidnappings are directly related to the financing of terrorist groups. Tizi-Ouzou tops the charts this incident, followed by Boumerdes, Tlemcen and Batna, officially recorded for a total of 1.2 billion dinars in ransom paid by the families of victims during the same period. "
The article discusses how the Freedom of the abductions is money laundering, primarily in the circuit real estate and informal trade.
"In reality, land and real estate are a privileged niche for the money laundering counts of armed groups. Why the choice of these sectors? Simply because different actors, such as notaries, business law and real estate agents, play the game by not reporting the transactions and consistently that seem questionable, although the law requires them.
Families and repentant terrorists also have a fondness for cafes, clothing stores, showers, bookstores selling religious books, CDs and cassettes of hadith and musk as well as small restaurants and importation of bananas. "
Infighting not thank you were quick to emerge in a climate of rivalry and suspicion chronic ambient. Terrorist groups have come to tear each other apart failing to agree on sharing the spoils.
"The rivalries were laid on the public stage in Jijel the lawsuit between a former member of the AIS to leaders of the organization. He accused them of breaking their promise of fair distribution of loot and have invested the money in the racket in agriculture and trade for their own account. "
Kidnapping: instructions.
The method is simple and very profitable. Ransoms which varies from 25 to 300 million dinars are requested to families of victims. The latter most often pay this tribute as soon as the ransom demand made not to endanger the life of a loved one. It is generally rendered to his family unharmed once the transaction.
"The GSPC has his instructions. He often acts on the basis of information given by the entourage of the victim. But sometimes, it depends on chance. Given the security situation which prevailed before 2008 in the region, armed groups rose up fake roadblocks in peace on some roads outside urban areas. When they were faced with financially well-off as traders, businessmen and industrialists, they took them off. "
Little risk and big profits.
The security forces, taken by surprise, found themselves totally helpless against this new form of terrorism. Unable hardly count on the cooperation of the families of victims who rightly fear of bloody retaliation, the police and the army are generally kept out of the abduction cases to their conclusion. They only thing left to find the facts and identify the kidnapping. The intervention of security forces in hostage rescue operations to date remains outstanding.
"Rarely these kidnapping attempts were foiled. First, because the parents of the hostages fear the leveraging of security services results in the execution of their family and so they prefer to automatically pay the amount claimed, without even negotiating. Then, because the armed groups had many support networks that provided them displayed caches secure, in addition to the fact that they were greatly benefited by the difficult and steep terrain of the region and the geographical extent of the scrub that could lead to Jijel. "
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