On 18 May 2021, the so-called Supreme Security Council issued a decision to place the Rachad movement on its list of terrorist organisations and to deal with it as such.
The Rachad movement considers this decision absurd, with no legal basis, and issued by an advisory body that has no prerogative to make decisions.
Rachad rejects the form and substance of this decision. Rachad was founded in 2007 on the principle of nonviolence and peace in advocating political and social change. It has a rich and solid track record of intellectual and audio-visual production to that end. Besides, there is no reference or word in its discourse, action, or the behaviour of its members, that promotes or justifies violence or terrorism.
This decision adopted by the authoritarian mafia regime is an escalation of the repression against the Algerian people’s peaceful protest movement. We have witnessed numerous times, the most recent of which was last Friday 117th protest, an increase in brutal violence and arbitrary arrests.
Today the people know well who the term « terrorism » applies to, because the regime’s repressive acts – cruel and degrading treatments, sexual harassment, and rape that have spared neither men nor women, teenagers or the elderly – are consistent with the academic definition of state terrorism.
The Algerian people has condemned this regime and its intelligence services of terrorism in spontaneous slogans clamoured in all districts of the country for weeks.
The time of submission, intimidation and surrender is over. Algerians have broken free from the shackles of enslavement and humiliation. They have charted the path of freedom on which they embarked despite all the obstacles, intrigues, and conspiracies, inspired by a strong belief in the need to liberate the country from the grip of the military junta.
We call on Algerian men and women to show solidarity with all the detainees and the hunger strikers.
We also call on all partners and activists in the peaceful Hirak protests to unite efforts, continue the nonviolent resistance, and work for a consensual solution that rids Algeria of the ruling mafia that has become an imminent threat to the security and future of the state and its citizens.
There is no doubt that the Algerians, through their peaceful, diverse, and united protest movement will triumph over the sinister plans plotted by the military mafia to sow discord and drag them into violence. By adhering to the principles of unity and nonviolence, Algerians will be able to thwart these plots and build the state of justice and rule of law that they have aspired to for decades.
Rachad Movement
19 May 2021
