The harkis have just lost one of their defenders.
Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday the death of General François Meyer, an officer who had taken up the cause of these Muslims who served the French army during the Algerian war.
At the end of this war (1954-1962), recalls the Elysée in a tribute press release, François Meyer had decided "to exfiltrate by his own means his men and their families to the metropolis, in flagrant contradiction with the directives official”.
While thousands of harkis were hunted down and killed in Algeria, he had 350 people embarked for France.
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 2021
"After having saved his men and their families", writes the president, "he devotes his energy to looking for French villages to welcome them, which he finally finds in Lozère.
The harkis who settled there became farmers.
For years, he spends all his permissions there and deploys tireless efforts to help their integration.
He also works to maintain the memory of his former comrades-in-arms, in the press and at conferences, publishing a book about them in 2005”.
In September 2021, Emmanuel Macron presented François Meyer with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, during a reception at the Élysée devoted to harkis.
That day, the head of state had asked "forgiveness" to the harkis on behalf of France for their tragedy, and promised "reparation".
The harkis and their descendants would today form a community of several hundred thousand people.
Elections
Presidential 2022: Marine Le Pen "challenges" the date marking the end of the Algerian war
Policy
Algerian War: Parliament will enshrine in law the "pardon" requested by France from the harkis
Company
Harkis
Algeria
Army
Memory