An effort to have a statue of Marcel Bigeard removed has reignited the debate over how the colonial past should be remembered.
Tag: Algerian War (1954-62)
Abandoned Cemetery of Algerians Highlights Painful Episode for France
Family groups have been calling for the excavation of land believed to hold the bodies of at least 50 children — the sons and daughters of Algerians who fought for France — who died in internment camps.
Shadows of Algerian War Loom Over Election Campaign in France
As President Emmanuel Macron addresses his country’s colonial history, echoes of that past have pervaded the messaging of right-wing candidates ahead of the voting in April.
Macron’s Comments on Algeria Resonate as Elections Loom
The French president acknowledged the suffering of colonists who fled Algeria after the war of independence, a group that has long voted heavily in favor of the right in France.
Macron Commemorates 1961 Paris Police Killing of Algerian Protesters
President Emmanuel Macron of France is the country’s first head of state to attend an event marking the deaths, which officials ignored for decades.
France Asks ‘Forgiveness’ for Its Abandonment of Algerian Harkis
After fighting on the French side in the Algerian war of independence, Algerian Arabs were left to be slaughtered in Algeria or were abused in France.
America’s Afghan War: A Defeat Foretold?
Recent history suggests that it is foolish for Western powers to fight wars in other people’s lands and that the U.S. intervention was almost certainly doomed from the start.
Lifting Veil on Algeria War Trauma, France Eases Access to Archives
Historians say there are still impediments to their research on the Algerian War, which remains sensitive in France, and point to the resealing of tens of thousands of once-public documents last year.
In Reconciliation Act, Macron Acknowledges Truth of Algerian Lawyer’s Death
The president admitted that Ali Boumendjel did not die by suicide, as France had previously claimed, but was killed by French troops during the Algerian war of independence.
Report Aims at ‘Reconciling’ France and Algeria, Its Former Colony
A government-commissioned study offers proposals to address longstanding grievances. But it does not recommend an official apology and skirts the issue of systemic torture by French troops.