Colonization and the Algerian war: the Stora report rules out any idea of repentance for France
Emmanuel Macron in Algiers on December 6, 2017. REUTERS / Zohra Bensemra
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3 min
In France, the question of the memory of colonization and then of the war of independence has plagued relations with Algeria for 60 years.
It was to "look history in the face" that Emmanuel Macron commissioned a report last July from historian Benjamin Stora.
A report which must be submitted this afternoon to the French president.
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In his report
, the historian dismisses any idea of repentance and takes as an example the apologies offered by Japan to Korea and China to conclude that this policy "
does not calm anything
".
So no question of apologizing: "
Repentance is vanity, recognition is the truth
", we repeat in the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, but the French president has said it, he wants out denial and unspoken about colonization and the war in Algeria.
Benjamin Stora thus formulates in his report some thirty recommendations in an attempt to reconcile memories.
Among them, there is the constitution of a memory and truth commission responsible for stimulating joint initiatives between the two countries on these questions of memory, but also the establishment of days of commemoration, on March 19 for example, date anniversary of the signing of the Evian agreements.
The Pantheon for Gisèle Halimi?
Another proposal: recognition by France of the assassination of lawyer Ali Boumendjel, an activist of the Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto, killed during the Battle of Algiers in 1957. Benjamin Stora calls for the resumption of the work of the group of joint work on archives, a group set up in 2013. It also proposes to bring into the Pantheon Gisèle Halimi, an anti-colonialist lawyer, notably famous for having defended FLN militants during the Algerian war.
These are only recommendations for the time being, but at the Élysée we are assured this morning that many of them will be retained.
Indeed, Emmanuel Macron made these memorial questions with Algeria one of the important subjects of his five-year term.
We remember this little bomb dropped on Algerian television
when he was still only a candidate for the presidency
when he described French colonization in Algeria as a crime against humanity.
Once elected, Emmanuel Macron will accomplish a first strong act: by recognizing that the communist activist Maurice Audin was assassinated in Algeria by French soldiers.
This report commissioned from Benjamin Stora is a new step.
Emmanuel Macron's goal is to work for the reconciliation of the French and Algerian peoples.
The challenge is extremely ambitious knowing that in France as in Algeria, some people still continue 60 years later to use this memory for political ends.
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