Hungry children worry wife

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Leila Zaoui stays awake at night wondering how she is going to feed her children.

The wife of Ahmed Zaoui, in hiding with the couple's four sons in a Southeast Asian country, has taken her second youngest boy, 12, who needs special help, out of a private school because she can no longer afford the fees.

"He was deeply disturbed by the absence of his father when we were in Algeria during that dark period and suffered a lot from Ahmed's absence when he needed him the most.

"His teacher told me that for some months he had been present in body only and his mind is not there."

Mrs Zaoui told the Herald she is also deeply concerned about her youngest son, aged 5, who has started sucking his thumb and is losing weight.

"He always used to hug his father and fall asleep in his lap and he wouldn't accept to go to bed unless Ahmed told him a story.

"He is now a very sad and different child who cries often and does not seem to enjoy playing any more. I have not had the courage to bring myself to tell him that his dad is in a prison far away. I don't think anything can boost him except his father."

Mrs Zaoui describes loneliness and fear in her latest country of exile without her husband. "I am always scared. My movements are very limited and I don't go out. We do not have enough money to keep us going.

"Sometimes I stay awake at night wondering how I'm going to feed the children the next day. All of this on top of living in fear of being arrested, prosecuted or sent back to Algeria."

For the past 12 years since the military coup which overthrew her husband's democratically elected party, the Islamic Front for Salvation, the family had not been able to settle.

"I always thought of having my home just as any other woman would have and of being able to raise my children and give them the best possible education that I could."

When she met Mr Zaoui, she knew she wanted to marry him.

"I was always looking at him as my future husband and what impressed me about him was that he always respected me as a woman and a neighbour."

Her husband had always been a good, educated, tender and loving man, both to his family and to others.

"And he is kind and generous. He would help anyone and he would share what he has with everyone."

If he and the family had to go back to Algeria they would all be in danger and her husband would probably be arrested and tortured or killed.