This was one of the proposals formulated in the report by French historian Benjamin Stora for a “reconciliation of memories” between Paris and Algiers. Emmanuel Macron acknowledged, this Tuesday, March 2, “in the name of France”, that the lawyer and nationalist leader Ali Boumendjel had been “tortured and murdered” by the French army during the Algerian war in 1957. This gesture “Is not an isolated act”, promises the French president in this press release. “No crime, no atrocity committed by anyone during the Algerian War can be excused or concealed”.
First French president born after the Algerian war, which took place between 1954 and 1962, Emmanuel Macron pledged to take “symbolic acts” to try to reconcile the two countries, but he ruled out any “repentance” and “apologies”. The French president himself announced this recognition to the grandchildren of Ali Boumendjel by receiving them on Tuesday. At the time, the assassination of the lawyer had been disguised as suicide.
“At the heart of the Battle of Algiers, he was arrested by the French army, placed in solitary confinement, tortured, then assassinated on March 23, 1957”, details the Éysée in a press release. In 2000, “Paul Aussaresses (former head of intelligence in Algiers, editor’s note) himself confessed to having ordered one of his subordinates to kill him and disguise the crime as suicide.”
The Élysée wants to “look history in the face”
“Today, the President of the Republic received at the Elysée Palace four of Ali Boumendjel’s grandchildren to tell them, on behalf of France, what Malika Boumendjel would have liked to hear: Ali Boumendjel did not is not committed suicide. He was tortured and then murdered, ”adds the French presidency.
“He also told them of his desire to continue the work started several years ago to collect testimonies, encourage the work of historians by opening the archives, in order to give to all the families of the missing, on both sides of the Mediterranean, the means of knowing the truth ”. The Élysée adds that “this work will be extended and deepened over the coming months, so that we can move forward towards appeasement and reconciliation”, wanting to “look history in the face, recognize the truth of the facts”.
“The generation of Ali Boumendjel’s grandchildren must be able to build their destiny, far from the two ruts of amnesia and resentment. It is for them now, for French and Algerian youth, that we must advance on the path of truth, the only one that can lead to the reconciliation of memories, ”adds the Élysée. Last month, Ali Boumendjel’s niece, Fadela Boumendjel-Chitour, denounced a “lie of the (French) state which was devastating”.
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