Bigard invented new methods to torture the mujahideen of the Algerian liberation revolution (French)
Two French historians signed a special appeal to refuse the erection of a special statue of General Marcial Bigard in his home city of Toul, on charges of his participation in war crimes during Algeria's colonial period.
French historians Fabrice Risputi and Alain Rousseau joined the petition launched by French activists to reject the erection of the statue.
The statement stated that the most documented of Bigard’s actions were his actions during the colonization of Algeria, and there is also in the French archive a file of the arrests that were carried out in Algeria in February, March and April 1957, when news of the suicide or killing of a large number of Algerian detainees increased. During their escape, all of which had the sole title of "death under torture" caused by the first, Bigard.
Risputi wondered whether it was a coincidence that the making of the statue was given to the sculptor Boris Lejeune, who is known for his close proximity to the National Rally party, or formerly the National Front, and the extreme right-wing movement in France.
Bigard, or “the serial killer,” as the Algerian media called him, was famous for inventing new methods at the time to torture the mujahideen of the Algerian liberation revolution, such as “Bigard’s shrimp,” when cement blocks were placed on the legs of the person concerned, left to dry, and then thrown into the sea.
In 1999, Bigard made a sort of confession about his responsibility for acts of torture in Algeria, and sparked a storm of controversy when he considered this torture a “necessary evil.”
The French general died in 2010 at the age of 94.
Source: Al Jazeera