• by IPS Correspondents (paris)
• Friday, December 30, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PARIS, Dic 30 (IPS) - The hijacking last weekend of an Air France aircraft by Algerian Islamic fundamentalists has raised fears in France of more such radical actions.

Analysts and observers have not ruled out the possibility of similarly extreme actions in France or Western Europe in the future as Islamic fundamentalists transport their war against the Algerian military regime elsewhere.

"People have talked non-stop about the hijacking and the hostage-taking, and fear there will be more to come," said Sophia Lamri, historian and sociologist at the Institute of Maghreb- European Relations at the University of Paris studying North African populations in France.

"Because they fear that the extremists will strike once more, they have been extremely careful about what they say to their neighbours. The events in Algeria have spawned mutual suspicion among members of the same community," said Lamri.

The festive mood of the year-end holidays was dampened when news broke out of the hijacking on Dec. 24 of the Air France plane with over 270 passengers and crew aboard in a drama that spanned from Algeria to France.

Three of the hostages, an Algerian policeman in plainclothes, an attache of the Vietnamese embassy in Algeria and a French cook at the French embassy were executed before the plane was flown from the Houari Boumedienne airport in Algiers to the Marignane airport in Marseilles in southern France.

More than 50 tense hours stretched before a group of French elite anti-terrorist forces stormed the plane Monday evening, setting the hostages free and killing all four of the hostage- takers said to belong to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).

Observers noted the timing and how it coincided with the third anniversary of the cancellation of the 1991 legislative elections that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.

Although the hijacking was foiled and the hijackers killed, observers said the hostage takers managed to involve France directly into what had been essentially an Algerian crisis. "They scored a point," said Ghassan Salame, specialist on North African affairs at the National Scientific Research Centre.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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