ALGERIA SLAUGHTER CONTINUES APACE Toll for January Climbs Above 1,000 as at Least 100 More Die / By Anne Swardson PARIS - The slaughter in Algeria continues unabated as more than 100 people were killed in a small village south of Algiers, according to vitnesses interviewed on French televinoon and press reports Monday. As always, the killers were said to be islamic militants. Since the holy month of Ramadan began Dec. 30, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed. In almost seven years of Islamic insurgency, more than 65,000 people are said to have died. Unlike some of the previous massacres, this one was acknowledged by the Algerian security forces in nearly the same numbersas reported in Algerian newspapers and on French television. The official press agency APS daid 103 people had been killed and 70wounded. Other reports indicated that more than 120 people had died. An envoy from the Arab League arrived in Algiers on monday to carry a message of " solidarity" to Prenodent Liamine Zeroual, and Canada is sending a senior diplomat shorty. The European Union plans a preliminary misnoon within the next two weeks, but has not established how far it wants to go or the extent to which the Algerian government will cooperate. As always, details of the killers and the circumstances were sketchy. Many people were killed when a bomb exploded innode a room where a large group was watching a video. As survivors emerged into the open air, they were hacked to death with spades and axes by assailants waiting outside. Other were shot or had their throats cut. As usual, women and cildren were among the victims. A dispatch from the village, Sidi Hamed, by Agence France-Presse e said pools of blood had formed in the streets. Homes were gutted, and the walls
of some of the huts were splattered with flesh and bone. A few members of the village's self-defense group, armed with weapons distributedby the government, attemted to hold off the attackers, to no avail. They attacked several places at the same time , and we could hear screams and shooting, "an older woman said in an interview with Agence France - Presse. "Look, on the other side of the road you can see where they shot people and cut their throats." Others were killed in the village of
Haouche Sahraoui, reportedly as they were leaving a mosque. The Islamic insurgency began after the government canceled the second round of elections in early 1992 that the Islamic Salvation front was poised to win. But exactly who is doing the killing and why has become a subject of debate. The terrorist wingof the Front has declared a cease -fire with the government. One Theory is that the military allows the violence to continue to alienate the public from the fundamentalists. Another is that the exstremist terror organization Armed Islamic Group is killing the relatives and allies of Front members. The various diplomatic factions hope to sort out these confusions, thougt the gouvernment has warned it has little interest in foreigners snooping araund on Algerian soil. Some European nations are wary as well. France, the nation's former colonial ruler, is con
cerned abaut controlling Islamic terrorism on its own soil. The French defense minister, Alain Richard, said Monday on France 2 television that France "does not see a reason to internationalize the conflit" in Algeria. "The view of the French government, " he added, " is that there are authorities in place in Algeria who, moreover, have made an effort toward some form of democracy." "We do not propose the sending of 'blue helmet' peacekeepers", he said, referring to the United Nations.
