The army barracks of Cheraga (see map) is only a few kilometres away. Neighbours telephoned the security forces who refused to intervene saying the matter was under the mandate of the gendarmerie. They called the gendarmerie but received no reply, and the attackers left undisturbed." However, the aforementioned general argued to the UN panel, with the help of a topographic map, that the army and gendarmerie had been unable to prevent the massacre, saying that "bombs had been set off to stop the army; and electrical power had been turned off by the attackers. The neighbouring farmers had not been able to provide help, as the terrorists had planted explosives, but they had alerted the security forces whose post divisional headquarters was a few kilometres away." He added that the government had urged the main family attacked to move somewhere safer earlier, and it had refused, and reported claims that the family in question had been feeding the terrorists and had possibly become rich as a result. Aftermath Many families fled Sidi Youssef following these massacres; some took refuge in the Beni-Messous stadium and were still there in 2002. The houses where the massacre took place were demolished by mayoral decree in 2001; only scattered ruins remain, and no plaque marks the spot. Eyewitness quotes Quoted by Rachid Khiari, Associated Press, Sept. 7: "We heard victims screaming and cries for help, but no one came," one of those who escaped told The Associated Press. "They kicked the door in, took the men, forced them outside, slit their throats," one woman -- the sole survivor of her family -- told The Associated Press. "They came back, took out my aunt and slit her throat, after slashing open her stomach," said the woman, who identified herself only by her family's name, Benbrahin. The woman escaped through a window of her home, then hid in a nearby forest until daybreak. Quoted by Daikha Dridi (babelmed 2003): Everyone remembers that terrible night: “it happened a bit further down, where the disaster stricken people’s town is today. That night, they were putting projectors up to light up the forest so that they could see the terrorists, when one started to hear people screaming” says Rafiq. See also List of massacres in Algeria List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s References External links NewStandard (AP) - 8th NewStandard (AP) - 7th Amnesty International Sidi Youssef later