Reuters AlertNet Lite - Algiers plans more anti-crime security cameras

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Algiers plans more anti-crime security cameras

02 Jul 2007 13:21:36 GMT
Source: Reuters

ALGIERS, July 2 (Reuters) - Algerian police will set up 300 extra security cameras in Algiers to fight crime, including a wave of kidnapping, a senior officer said in remarks published on Monday.

The cameras, common in Western capitals, are still a novelty in the capital of Africa's second biggest country. Algeria began installing them in its cities in 2004 and has about 160 so far.

Speaking to El Watan newspaper, Algiers police chief Abdelmoumen Abderabi said the police would also recruit an additional 5,000 officers to patrol the capital of 3.5 million inhabitants to try to combat rising crime.

Dozens of children and adults have been kidnapped in Algiers and neighbouring eastern provinces in recent years, many of them by organised gangs seeking ransom.

Last week, the dead body of a 4-year-old boy was found stuffed down a well on the outskirts of Algiers, 300 metres from his home. He had been missing for 55 days. In that case no ransom demand was received.

Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said security forces had been so busy fighting Islamist rebels in recent years that they lacked some of the latest skills to fight crime.

Algeria has 180,000 police, who focus on urban areas, including several thousand stationed in Algiers.

The separate 75,000-strong gendarmes are the main security force in rural areas and tend to handle the most serious criminal investigations.

Algeria descended into violence in 1992 when the military-backed government scrapped legislative elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win.

Authorities had feared an Iranian style revolution. Up to 200,000 people have been killed during the ensuing violence.

The bloodshed has subsided sharply in recent years from a 1990s peak, and last year the government freed more than 2,000 former Islamist guerrillas under an amnesty designed to put an end to the conflict.

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Last updated:Mon Jul 2 13:24:18 2007