He was the first to say “no” to the Algerian War, as a French conscript. Alban Liechti, the first to refuse to shoot Algerians, has just died at the age of 89. His funeral will take place on Wednesday, September 4 in Trappes, in the Yvelines. This communist activist was a pioneer in this war, before making followers: he was the first “soldier of refusal”.
He took up the pen in 1956 during his compulsory military service, in Versailles. His regiment was about to be sent to Algiers so he wrote his refusal to take up arms to President René Coty. “The war that our leaders are waging against the Algerian people is not defensive. In this war, it is the Algerians who are defending their women, their families, peace, and justice. It is the friendship between French and Algerians that I want to defend,” he wrote.
Sent to Algeria despite everything, the communist activist tried to convince the other young conscripts. “I said everything I thought about the Algerian war, that we had no place there and that methods like torture were used. I was against all that. I was well regarded by all the guys, except the officers,” recalled Alban Liechti in 2021 on French Culture.
Alban Liechti does not know the risks he is running, since he is the first. It will be prison for the next four years. Incarcerated by the French army in Tizi Ouzou, then in Algiers, he is then transferred again several times.
He was slow to be supported by his party, the PCF, but his action ended up gaining followers, says historian Tramor Quemeneur, a specialist in Algeria: “About a year after his refusal, a campaign began, led by the Secours Populaire Français, which led to around forty young communists refusing to participate in the Algerian war. This led to the question of refusing war, of disobedience in the Algerian war being raised publicly. From this point of view, his career is important. ”
“At one point, we reached the point where there was increasingly strong opposition within French society.”
to franceinfo
Released from his military obligations ten days before the Evian Accords, he became a gardener again in Trappes and remained deprived of his right to vote until 1966, and the amnesty law. “He is a hero! For a long time, he was rather considered a traitor”, believes his son, Vincent Liechti. He also mentions a lack of recognition: “When he died, we had a message from the President of the Algerian Republic but not from the French President, so the recognition is not yet complete”. Alban Liechti’s funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon, at the Trappes cemetery.
A look back at the life of Alban Liechti, the first “soldier of refusal” of the Algerian war, by Agathe Mahuet