 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2014) |
| Rais massacre | |
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| Part of Algerian Civil War | |
| Location | Rais, Algeria |
| Coordinates | 36°36′47″N 3°07′26″E / 36.613°N 3.124°E |
| Date | 28 August 1997 |
| Deaths | 98 to 400 villagers 800 killed according to the BBC |
| Injured | 120 |
| Perpetrator | Armed Islamic Group of Algeria |
| Algerian massacres in 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Massacres in which over 50 people were killed: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1998 → | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Rais massacre, of August 28, 1997, was one of Algeria's bloodiest massacres of the 1990s. It took place at the village of Rais, near Sidi Moussa and south of Algiers. The initial official death toll was 98 people killed and 120 wounded; CNN said that hospital workers and witnesses gave a toll of at least 200, and up to 400. The figure given by the Algerian government to the UN Commission on Human Rights was 238.[1] The BBC later quoted the figure of 800 killed.[2]
In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a brutal civil conflict that had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The poor farming village of Rais had mostly voted for FIS and had a history of supporting Islamist guerrillas in the region, but (according to a villager quoted by PBS) had recently stopped providing them with food and money.
- ^ Asma Jahanhir (2 February 2000). "Civil And Political Rights, Including Questions Of: Disappearances And Summary Executions". UN Commission on Human Rights. Archived from the original on 20 April 2001. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
The Hais Rais/Sidi Moussa case. During the night of 29 August 1997 a terrorist group attacked the farming village of Hais Rais located on the outskirts of the commune of Sidi Moussa, killing 238 people.
- ^ "Violent past haunts Algeria's fresh start". 1 October 2005. Retrieved 5 March 2023.