Algeria -

At a time when the French colonial empire suffered from the blows of the Algerian liberation revolution 62 years ago, Paris registered its name within the "nuclear club" by detonating the first atomic bomb on February 13, 1960, under the name of the blue jerboa, in the greater desert of Algeria.

A member of the Nuclear Research Center, Ammar Mansouri, confirms that France used his country's desert from that date until February 16, 1966 as the scene of 57 explosions and nuclear tests.

The experiments at the sites of the French atomic energy laboratories, which they left in 1967 and were based in the Algerian desert, left new Algerian civilian and military victims, in addition to the victims of the bombing period among Algerian workers, indigenous citizens and nomads, as well as Algerians who were used as an experiment laboratory, according to what the researcher Mansouri recorded. Veer, the first issue of the scientific journal "The Sources of Contemporary History of Algeria", issued in 2019.

Former Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum revealed that these nuclear explosions were equivalent to four times the Hiroshima bomb in Japan.

The number of Algerian victims of these experiments reached at least 30,000, after contracting diseases caused by exposure to radioactivity, according to the official news agency.

Chengriha demanded that France hand over the topographic maps of the burial areas of undiscovered radioactive waste from the Algerians (Al-Jazeera)

Maps and compensation

During his meeting with his French counterpart, Francois Lecointre, last April, the Algerian Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Said Chanegriha, raised the demand for the rehabilitation of the old French nuclear test sites.

He stressed the need for Algeria to hand over topographic maps to determine the areas of burial of polluting, radioactive or chemical waste that have not been discovered so far.

This is the same demand that was repeated in early June by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in an interview with the French newspaper Le Point.

However, former Mujahideen Minister Tayeb Zitouni later stated that Paris refuses to hand over these topographic maps to his country, stressing that this issue is "the most sensitive of the memory files (between France and Algeria), and requires urgent practical measures for a settlement."

The French Parliament had previously issued what is known as the "Moran" law on January 5, 2010 to recognize and compensate the victims of the French nuclear tests, in which about 150,000 people, including military and civilians, participated.


Confessions of Parliament and the Army

As for the effects of those experiments, according to what the French Senate report published on its official website, the “Surface Blue Gerboise” experiment had a strength of 70 kilotons using plutonium, and it led to radioactive fallouts in the east of the Reggane region in the Algerian desert, and then the rotation of a nuclear cloud that extended to N’Djamena and capitals. Another African, before her arrival on the eighth day to the city of Algiers.

A specialist in modern and contemporary history, Dahmane Touati, was surprised by the French parliamentary document's description of the nuclear explosion as a successful experiment, and its claim that there were no residents in the area at the time.

Toati explained in a statement to Al Jazeera Net, that the map of bombings released by the French army in 2014, under the influence of legal prosecutions of the affected French workers, contradicts the parliamentary report.

The specialist in history said that the French nuclear pollution had reached southern Spain, according to the French Ministry of Defense, while the "Moran" law only recognizes compensation for those who prove their presence in the "black zone".

Touati wondered: Why did France reduce the second surface nuclear explosion charge from 70 to 5 kilotons and transfer it from the surface to the ground?

Justifying this by the size of the recklessness and pollution in the first experiment.

The Algerian historian confirmed the occurrence of a large and dangerous radioactive leak in the "Birley" experiment in Mount Arak in the targeted area, due to the spread of its cloud that touched humans, animals and the environment, which led to the flight of French officials before they were immediately cleansed of large doses.


fear of crime

On the other hand, historian Amer Rakhila believes that the differences of the political class in France prevented a final decision on its official position to be approached towards the file of nuclear explosions and the issue of memory in general with the Algerians.

Rakhila told Al Jazeera Net that handing over the maps of the bombings to Algeria and purifying its trenches of equipment, equipment and radioactive materials buried in the depths, will reveal the extent of the ongoing crime against living creatures, which leads to a refutation of France's allegations regarding the experiments.

He explained that the "Moran" law practically excluded the Algerians by placing the burden of proof of damage scientifically and medically on the shoulders of the victim of the bombings, with the filing of the file personally.

If there was a will on the part of the French authorities for the Algerian victims to benefit from compensation, they would have negotiated with government agencies to complete the procedures, and opened an office in Algeria to implement the steps included in the law, as Rakhila believes.


stalking France

On the other hand, international law adviser Kamel Filali calls on the Algerians to rely on international humanitarian law and human rights conventions to prosecute France for its nuclear crimes.

He explained that 4 international conventions (the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949) prevented infringement of the right to life and other rights in times of war and peace.

International law also prohibits the colonial state from taking irresponsible and criminal acts against the indigenous population.

He pointed out the possibility of relying on the European Convention for the Protection of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms (1950) and other texts within the framework of the United Nations to pursue France.

The expert at the United Nations indicated, in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, that France had not ratified on August 5, 1963, in Moscow, an agreement related to a partial prohibition of nuclear tests in the air and under the sea, and had not signed before that the declaration of the suspension of nuclear tests in 1958.

Filali, who is also the former vice-chairman of the African Union Commission on International Law, considered that the "Moran" law constitutes a flagrant discrimination among the victims by approving compensation for the French military in return for depriving the Algerians.

He concluded that the only way to confront the problem presented was to file a case before the International Court of Justice, which is concerned with disputes between states only.

He stressed the need to continue the efforts of the "mixed commission between Algeria and France", which began its work in 2008, with the need to intensify the research on the file.