A few days after the publication by the US State Department of its annual report on the situation of human rights in the world in which a series of grievances were held against the Algerian authorities, the United States is once again ruling on the situation of freedoms in Algeria.
This time, it is the charge d’affaires of the American embassy in Algiers who speaks on the subject in an interview with the Arab channel financed by the United States, Al Hurra.
Gautam Rana expressed a strong opinion regarding the weekly Hirak protests which resumed on February 22 after a hiatus of almost a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He reiterated his country’s position on peaceful protests in Algeria.
According to Mr. Rana, Washington “supports the right of the Algerian people to express themselves and to demonstrate in complete freedom”. The diplomat recalled that the United States promotes “democracy and democratic institutions” all over the world, stressing that it is a “fundamental value” of American foreign policy. This promotion also concerns human rights, the rule of law, the strengthening of institutions, and transparent elections.
“Ultimately, this is a question that concerns Algeria and it is up to the Algerian people to develop their institutions and their government,” he said.
“There is a dialogue with the Algerian authorities on the issue of human rights”
Asked about the human rights situation in Algeria, the charge d’affaires was content to indicate that the fundamental values that the United States is trying to promote throughout the world are freedom of expression and press, religious freedoms, and peaceful expression.
In this sense, he recalled that the report published recently by the State Department raised these questions. “There is a dialogue with the Algerian authorities on the issue of human rights and this is part of the dialogue to consolidate bilateral relations,” he said.
In its annual report on the situation of human rights in the world published on March 30, the US State Department listed a series of human rights violations in Algeria, including “serious restrictions on the freedom of ‘expression and the press, ‘the substantial obstacle to the freedoms of assembly and association’, the ‘excessive’ use of the committal warrant, the arrest of demonstrators …
The United States has been without an ambassador in Algiers since the end of John Desroch’s mission last August. Before his departure, he recalled that the United States had expressed “on several occasions its support for the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully to express their opinions”.
