Return to Africa

On Tuesday, December 30, 1969, the following cable, sent from Geneva, was received in my office at 475 Riverside Drive:

"WITHHOLD EVERYTHING FROM NORTH AFRICA SO FAR EXPELLED LARSONS WERDER TRYNDAL WIESE EPTINGS OTHERS TO FOLLOW."

I immediately talked with Bishop Schaefer in Zurich  . . . [and]  learned of a shocking incident that happened the weekend before. A seminar for university students . . was held at the youth center in El Biar (Algiers), under the auspices of Lynn and Jeanne Larson and others who assisted them. . .

This was the third seminar to be held, and was received enthusiastically by the Algerian youth. The conference . . . was to last from Friday evening until Sunday noon . . The theme was "Our Generation Between Yesterday and Tomorrow." There were thirty-five youth, including twenty-eight Algerians, five Americans, one Swiss, and one British. . . .

The folk dancing had finished and the participants were getting ready to go to their dormitories late Saturday night on December 27, 1969, when about ten policemen, most of them in plain clothes, entered the building and grouped the Algerian boys, the Algerian girls, and the foreigners. This was about 12:15 a.m., Sunday morning. The policemen then started collecting papers and books from around the building and piling them by the door. They ordered Lynn Larson to empty a book case of children’s library books, and to put the books on the floor in a pile. Then they asked him to show them the films that they had and to thread one in the projector and project it for them. (It was a UNESCO film of children’s drawings from around the world.) Then they loaded the last of the young people into the United Methodist mission car (which was never returned) and took them to the police building. The boys and girls were separated; the boys had to remain standing with their faces to the wall for six hours without putting their hands in their pockets. Periodically different ones were taken for questioning. Lynn Larson was questioned extensively, by fifteen or twenty different people, intermittently during the next sixty-two hours.

The girls were taken to a hall on another floor and also were told to stand in a single file and be quiet. There was a policeman with a machine gun at each end of the line. They were taken one by one for questioning. Jeanne Larson and Shelby Trindal, who had helped to plan the conference, were questioned most extensively. The policemen changed off during the night, and depending on their personalities, the girls were allowed to sit on the floor and whisper at times.

The young people (foreigners) were asked questions about the weekend conference, who had planned it (the questioners could not believe that Algerian youth had done much of the planning and made most of the arrangements), the Methodist Church, the employees of The United Methodist Church in Algeria, Christianity, Israel and their attitude toward the Jews and Arabs, Islam, their early childhood and families, political views, their work in Algeria, how they got to know the participants in the conference, and most of all, their purpose for being in Algeria and the purpose of the conference. Each person eventually had to sign a written report of their statement. There were "mistakes" in some which made them more incriminating. Though protests were made, they were not changed.

. . . Sunday, at about 10:00 p.m., they were all transferred (still in separate groups of boys and girls) to the city jail. There they were told to empty their pockets, turn in their watches, belts and shoe laces, and were searched before being locked in prison cells. The boys were in two different cells, about ten in each. They were 9' x 18', with a Turkish toilet installation in one corner, and a two-foot cement raised shelf for sleeping.

. . . On Monday morning the time was spent by the young people having "mug shots" (individual pictures) and fingerprints taken, and each one was measured (height, finger length, head size, ear size, etc.) Early in the afternoon they were assembled for a group picture, and at that point Louise Werder was brought in. Louise had been extensively questioned, particularly in regard to her activities and whether she had put pressure upon young people to become Christian. The Algerians were then released, and the foreigners put back into their cells. Two policemen offered to get them some bread and cheese if they would give them money. So they ate their second meal in custody–bread, cheese and an orange. Monday evening they were asked one by one "If you are expelled, where do you want to go?" and how much money they had, for they had to buy their own plane tickets. Louise was asked if she would agree to buy tickets for the other two Swiss with the money she had. She agreed, and also said she would buy tickets for the others as well, if the police would allow her to draw money out of her account. . .Since Louise would pay, they made arrangements for them to leave by air on Tuesday. . . Finally, at about 12:30 p.m. all of them were called in one by one, given the personal belongings they had checked, and their passports, which the police had gone to get for them when they were given directions of where to find them. All seven of them were then escorted to the police truck, and driven to the airport, accompanied by several men in plain clothes. There they waited in a security police room and their belongings were searched. They allowed Willi to take out a wallet and a briefcase.. They were then undressed and searched, and finally, at 2:00 p.m., they were escorted to the field and into the Swiss Air jet bound for Geneva. The young people had been held in custody for a total of sixty-two hours. . .