Paris (AFP)

"Symbolic acts" are planned but there will be "neither repentance nor apologies" following the delivery on Wednesday of a report on colonization and the Algerian war by historian Benjamin Stora to Emmanuel Macron, a indicated the Elysee.

The Head of State will participate in three days of commemoration within the framework of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian war in 1962: the national day of the harkis on September 25, the repression of a demonstration of Algerians on the 17th October 1961 and the Evian Accords of March 19, 1962, said the presidency.

Benjamin Stora, a recognized specialist in the contemporary history of Algeria, must submit at 5 p.m. at the Elysee Palace the report entrusted to him in July by Emmanuel Macron to "draw up a fair and precise inventory of the progress accomplished in France on the memory of colonization and the Algerian war ".

The Head of State "will speak in due course" on the recommendations of this report, which will be made public at 5 p.m., and of the commission which will be responsible for studying them, the presidency said.

"There will be words" and "acts" by the president in "the coming months", she assured, adding that "a period of consultations" was opening.

It is a question of "looking at history in the face" in a "serene and peaceful way" in order to "build a memory of integration", summarizes the Elysee.

It is "a process of recognition" but "there is no question of repentance" and "to apologize", it is specified, based on the opinion of Benjamin Stora who cites as an example the precedent of the apologies presented by Japan to South Korea and China on the 2nd world war which did not make it possible to "reconcile" these countries.

Among the acts envisaged, is the entry of the anti-colonialist lawyer Gisèle Halimi, who died on July 28, 2020, at the Pantheon, which welcomes the heroes of French history.

Previously, a solemn tribute should be paid to him at the Invalides in the spring "when sanitary circumstances allow", according to the presidency.

The Elysee Palace also stressed that Emmanuel Macron did not "regret" his remarks made in Algiers in 2017 denouncing colonization as "a crime against humanity".

"What more could he say? There is nothing more to say, however there is a lot to do."

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