Algeria: France sacrifices the monks of Tibhirine on the altar of a turbulent friendship
On the night of 26 to 27 March 1996, seven Trappist monks from the monastery of Tibhirine in the Titteri region, not far from Médéa, were kidnapped and held captive for several weeks. Two months later, on 21 May, a communiqué from the Armed Islamic Groups (GIA) announced their assassination.
Attributing the assassination to the GIA was and remains unconvincing. Especially when the Algerian secret services grotesquely interfered by trying to hide the decapitated bodies whose heads had been discovered a week later (on 30 May) 4 km from the town of Médéa. They weighted the monks' coffins down with sand to maintain the illusion. The subterfuge was soon discovered and this ultimately strengthened the conviction that the Trappists of the monastery of Tibhirine were victims of the Intelligence and Security Department headed by General Mohamed Mediène, better known as Tewfik. This theory is reinforced by the confessions of several former agents years later. The name of the person who ordered the operation is often mentioned in several testimonies: Major Mehenna Djebbar, then head of the 1st Military Region's Main Operational Centre. Today, he is a major general, Director General of Documentation and External Security, after a stint in prison in 2019 for "illicit enrichment".
Today, General Major Mehenna is the main contact for the French secret services as part of the bilateral cooperation between the two countries. And his French counterparts never dare mention the Trappist monks when the Algerian general asks them to extradite Algerian opponents exiled in France. They do not even object to the fact that Algerian service networks act with total impunity in their attempts to kidnap and assassinate Algerian opponents. One cannot help but wonder about this French laxity, which allows the Algerian secret services to act as they please on French territory, while ignoring the heinous murders of seven of their fellow citizens. All this to win the sympathy of an Algerian regime that is as fickle as it is unstable, and the friendship so sought after by the French remains a chimera that is deliberately maintained.