Algeria demanded from the French state an acknowledgment of its crimes committed during colonization. It was on Monday February 8, 2021 that the Algerian state made this claim. In an interview with the government newspaper El Masa, Algerian government spokesman Ammar Belhimmer said: “France’s resistance to not recognizing its crimes has its reasons. They are known to those who nostalgia for the colonial past and the illusion of French Algeria “.
The remains of 24 Algerians killed and repatriated
He did not fail to point out that “the criminal usually goes out of his way to avoid admitting his crimes, but this policy of headlongering cannot last.” Moreover, even if the government spokesperson praised France for having given the remains of 24 Algerian resistance fighters killed at the start of colonization, he ruled that “the most important moral accomplishment is the recognition of the colonial crimes of France “. Note that these remarks by the Algerian spokesperson come after the publication, on January 20, of a report concerning the memorial reconciliation between the two countries, by French historian Benjamin Stora.
It is also the first time that a member of the government has reacted indirectly to the recommendations of the French historian. Indeed, not even the head of state, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, or the director of the national archives Abdelmadjid Chikhi, nor the minister of veterans have given any feedback on this issue.
