On September 20, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced a new body to investigate the thousands of cases of persons who were "disappeared" during the civil strife of the 1990s and who remain unaccounted for. Since 1999 there have been only very isolated reports of new "disappearances." However, the state has not implemented legal and institutional safeguards surrounding arrest and detention procedures that would help to prevent the practice in the future.