ALGERIA: Murder on the Beach

All along the 45 miles of coast running from torrid Algiers west to Chenoua Beach, bungalows and cabanas were crowded with sun worshipers, Moslem and European alike. On the coastal roads autos moved bumper to bumper with only an occasional armored car to serve as a reminder that this was Algeria and not the French Riviera. Then a wisp of smoke rising on the mountain behind Chenoua Beach raised a forest fire alarm. After beach police rushed off to the fire, F.L.N. terrorists went to work.

One of them, wearing the uniform of the loyal French-officered Harki troops, stopped a car on the highway and shot its driver dead. About 30 other terrorists sprang from the woods and set upon the crowded coastline. They kicked open several cottage doors and machine-gunned people inside. Bathers caught out in the open were ordered not to move; some were picked off by the rebels, a survivor later related, “like so many rabbits.” When French armored cars rushed up 15 minutes later, 13 bathers lay dead or dying, and another 30 wounded. Soon 6,000 French troops poured into the area, but not one F.L.N. rebel could be found.

The massacre at Chenoua Beach climaxed the worst week of rebel terrorism in Algeria since June 1957. It stemmed from rebel rage at the breakdown six weeks ago of preliminary truce talks between France and the F.L.N. Since then, French officers had spread the word among Algeria’s many uncommitted Moslems that “the F.L.N. is finished.” The massacre at Chenoua might not endear the rebels to their fellow countrymen — many Moslems were appalled — but it was meant to prove cold-bloodedly that the F.L.N. was not yet to be counted out.