The Organization of Young Free Algerians (OJAL, French: Organisation des jeunes Algériens libres) was a pro-government armed group that claimed credit for various attacks against civilians who sympathised with the Islamists during the Algerian Civil War. It was active mainly in 1994 and 1995. However, it was a front under which elements of the DRS, the Algerian security services, operated. OJAL never existed as an independent organisation.
Acts for which OJAL took credit
The abduction (on 26 November 1993) and killing of Mohamed Bouslimani, president of the Islamic charity El Irshad wa el Islah and founding member of HMS. This abduction was also claimed by the GIA. The kidnapping and torture of Islamic Salvation Front (FIS - then dissolved) founding member and mathematician Mohamed Tedjini Boudjelkha in November 1993; he was released after 5 days. The threat in February 1994 that "If a woman is attacked for not wearing a chador, OJAL will take vengeance by purely and simply liquidating 20 women wearing a hijab."
Testimony from a former DRS agent
According to Aggoun and Rivoire (2004), OJAL was a name that was made up by a group within the DRS, the Algerian security service: "In September 2001, the ex-adjudant Abdelkader Tigha, sub-officer of the DRS who had deserted at the end of 1999, revealed that the acronym OJAL had been invented by the right-hand man of the CTRI ( / Territorial Research and Investigation Centre) of Blida, Captain Abdelhafid Allouache ..., and that it was subsequently used by other departments of the DRS as a cover in order to murder enemies with impunity."
Abdelkader Tigha, DRS head of a brigade at the CTRI ("") center of Blida, first military region, was charged with getting information on the Armed Islamic Groups (GIA) and with infiltrating them. According to Tigha, who has requested the status of political refugee: "Before the deterioration of the state of security in Blida (daily bombings, attacks on barracks), my service had received the order [in 1993], directly from General Lamari Smain [head of counter-espionage in the DRS, itself directed by General Mohamed Médiène ], to limit translations before a tribunal, this means starting to execute arrested people in order to diminish the GIA's recruiting and scare the civilian population..." , Nord-Sud Export, n°427 - 21 September 2001 (mirrored by Algeria Watch) Police forces were put in 1993 under the authority of the CTRI security services. "Nothing changed from 1993 to 1997" continued Tigha, executions followed arrests. According to Tigha, the police and military were “well aware of what was going on” and their job was to “collect and bury the corpses," on which the acronym OJAL was written. The organization had also posted false flyers to accredit its existence, which was allegedly only a useful cover to dissimulate the acts committed by the counter-insurgency.
The heads of the DRS, Mohamed Médiène and Lamari Smain, decided to create groups of "Patriots" which they armed in order to fight the Islamists. Head of the Armed Forces, Mohamed Lamari (no family ties with Lamari Smain), decided in 1997 to change their names to GLD (, Legitime Defense Groups), allegedly because of fears of prosecution by international courts. According to Tigha, these armed civilians were ordered to kill whole families of targeted Islamists, creating a cycle of vengeance, and to protect wealthy families and homes. They were under complete protection of the security forces. Hence, those responsible for the murder of GIA's emir Antar Zouabri's family were protected by the DRS according to Tigha's testimony.