Zaman, Turkey
May 8 2006

Algeria Seeks Apology for Massacre, France Occupied with Armenian Law

By Ali Ihsan Aydin, Algeria
Published: Monday, May 08, 2006
zaman.com

Today, Europe is celebrating the anniversary of one of the most
important events of the 20th century, their defeat of the Nazis on
May 8 1945 signaling the end of World War II.

Contrary to the excitement of victory won 61 years ago, France is
facing the serious allegation of conducting a massacre. While, on 8
May 1945 Europe was able to breathe a sigh of relief, Algeria mourned
as it continued to remain under French colonization. Algerians fought
along side the French in the fight against the German Nazis together
in hopes of gaining their freedom, however, their dreams were dashed
when they returned to home after the war to find French soldiers
murdering Algerian survivors.

Algerians have been commemorating May 8 for years and call for “the
acceptance of genocide and an apology” from France. France, in
pursuit of version of history, continues to say, “Let’s leave the
past to the historians,” in response to these calls. The Paris
administration, which made the Armenians’ genocide allegations into a
law in 2001, is attempting to go one step further and introduce a law
to punish those who deny the genocide. The discussions to start in
French Parliament on May 18 will be conducted under the shadow of the
Algerian massacre.

Zaman went to Algeria on the 61st anniversary of the massacre and
spoke to witnesses of the event and to local historians. Witnesses to
this event are now in their 90s, however, they remember how the
French colonial administration incinerated thousands of Algerians in
lime ovens and dumped their bodies into the rivers. Despite the calls
for apology, France passed a law praising colonialism last year,
further infuriating the Algerians. The opposition al-Islah Party in
Algeria has taken new steps taken in a reaction to Paris’s attitude,
by submitting to parliament a proposed law condemning French
colonialism and considering it a crime. Al-Islah Party
Secretary-General Dr .Mohammed Djahid Younsi, speaking to Zaman,
stressed that colonizing countries must apologize and pay
compensation to people they colonized. France is double-dealing,
according to the general manager of the French newspaper published by
French Courrier d’Algerie, Ahmet Toumiat.

Algerian historian Professor Mohammed El-Corso speaks out against the
understanding of justice in France: “It is a double standard that
France replies, ‘Let’s leave the past to the historians,’ to the
calls by Algerians, while passing a law for the Armenians. There is
such an odd understanding of justice in France. It is as though some
things have become the property of France.”

Algeria sent its young men to fight for France’s freedom against the
Nazi occupation in Europe; in return it was promised independence.
The Algerian people believed they would be freed as soon as France
was released from the grip of Nazi occupation, and the fall of
Germany was welcomed with a festival atmosphere in Algeria. Algerians
organized marches on May 8 to celebrate their victory and to remember
the promise given to them. The demonstrations held in the cities of
Setif, Guelma and Kherrata in the east of the country turned bloody
when 40-45,000 Algerians, according to Algeria and the United States,
and 20,000, according to France, were murdered within a week.

Hamla was 19 in 1945 and one of the organizers of the march in
Guelma. “We wanted to celebrate the victory and remind the Americans,
British and Russian people their promise of independence,” says
Hamla, clearly remembering those days. Hamla welcomed us into his
modest home in an Algerian suburb, and he said they flew the Algerian
People’s Party flag along side French, British, American and Russian
flags during the march, and shouted slogans of freedom. Hamla says
they confronted the French Gendarmerie Units waiting for them and
violence broke out when the gendarme began shooting at civilians.

A state of emergency was declared and the French army began to
massacre local Algerians. “We were gullible then and we did not think
the French would kill us. They betrayed us and the other allies
forgot their promises also,” says a mournful Hamla, remembering that
French soldiers killed ten of thousands of Algerians. While some of
the bodies were buried in mass graves outside the city, some of them
were burned in furnaces so not to distress the French governor with
the smell of rotting corpses, which Ben Hamla likened to the Nazi
“death chambers.” The lime furnaces outside Guelma were turned into
death furnaces, where thousands of Algerians were brought to die,
their bodies were completely incinerated. We smelt the burning
corpses”, Hamla added.

‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when I returned to my country’

Said, who withheld his surname, was 17 at that time he joined the
march in Setif, and he says murdered Algerians were carried in trucks
to Kherrata River and then dumped. “They threw even some living
people into the trucks”, says the old Algerian remembering those
days, adding that France is still his “enemy.” Said says they stoned
the French soldiers that started firing at them and tried to lower
the Algerian flag. “They killed anybody they saw in the streets, and
they raped our women. They even stabbed a pregnant woman in the
stomach. I saw all these events”, says Said, remembering that French
soldiers confiscated guns and sharp tools from the organizers of the
marches to prevent any incidents of violence.

Amar Aliat, 98, whom we came across wearing traditional clothes and
wandering on the road where the march took place in Setif, is a war
veteran that fought for French independence in 1939. Ali said they
were made to wear French military uniforms and he remembers listening
to a speech made by French commanders telling Algerian soldiers that
Algeria would gain independence if it defeated the Nazis. Ali says
all the shops were closed, and the all streets were empty when they
returned to Setif. General Duval, known as the “Setif Butcher,” in
command of the French army executing the massacres, told the French
in Algeria, “We established peace in ten years. If France does not do
anything now, then a similar difficult situation could happen again
and next time it amy be unsolvable.” Just as, the salvation movement
started in 1954 brought independence to Algeria. Algeria was a French
colony for 130 years before gaining independence in 1962.