ABSTRACT
During a discussion on the position of Algeria vis-à-vis France and the United States at his house on the hill hosting the American Embassy in Algiers, Osman Bencherif – then teacher of English at the Lycée Descartes – recalled his past days as Algeria’s ambassador in Washington:
Being woken up by a call from Algiers every other night was really not my thing. The constant pressure from Amnesty and Co. was almost the only thing I dealt with. Every time they came out with a report or a press release it was hell. And of course it was normal. The government was holding back all sorts of possible information, the number of those killed, their identity. The same with the ‘disappeared’. And the argument of these guys at the time was very strong: you’re fighting somebody who won the elections. As to me personally, the pressure was too high, and I eventually had to quit.
