The French President Emmanuel Macron wants to compensate Algerian aid troops who fought on the side of France in the Algerian war financially.
A law on reparations payments for the so-called Harkis should be launched this year, Macron announced on Monday in the Elysée Palace in Paris.
France owed the Harkis a debt.
He begs her forgiveness, said Macron.
During the Algerian War between 1954 and 1962, Algerian independence advocates fought against the French colonial power, which had ruled the country since 1830 and brutally suppressed the liberation struggle. Around 200,000 Harkis from Algeria were also flying the French flag. After the war, the auxiliaries were left alone by France. In independent Algeria they were subjected to repression, in France tens of thousands of them lived in unworthy conditions.
Like the former President Nicolas Sarkozy, Macron recognized a historic responsibility for France.
After the war, France had failed to meet its obligations to the Harkis.
The reparations should specifically affect the first generation of the Harkis and their children.
A commission is to be set up for the compensation payments.
Algerian war long taboo in France
Immediately after Macron's announcement, unrest broke out in the hall in which the Harkis, their descendants and various organizations were gathered.
A woman burst into tears, Macron interrupted accusingly.
The President had to ask several times for the guests to sit down again.
The Algerian war, with hundreds of thousands dead, was long fraught with taboos in France. Macron endeavored last to promote the reconciliation. In March he had easier access to secret archives about the war.