"A not insignificant step in the appeasement of memories", writes this Thursday Liberté, a French-speaking Algerian newspaper.
Algiers greeted with "satisfaction" the recognition by President Emmanuel Macron of the assassination by the French army of Algerian nationalist leader Ali Boumendjel.
"Algeria has noted with satisfaction the announcement of French President Emmanuel Macron of his decision to honor the fighter and martyr Ali Boumendjel," public television said at the opening of its mid-day newspaper.
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Recognition of the assassination of Ali Boumendjel: 5 minutes to understand this historic step
President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Tuesday, "in the name of France", that the lawyer and nationalist leader Ali Boumendjel had been "tortured and murdered" by the French army during the Battle of Algiers in 1957. This "laudable initiative is part of the good intentions and the sincere desire to intensify the dialogue between France and Algeria concerning the colonial era ”, explains the presenter of the A3 channel, reading an official press release.
"Through such an initiative, it is possible for Algeria and France to move forward in building stable and peaceful relations, genuine reconciliation and multifaceted cooperation," the statement concluded.
The Algerian press generally applauded Emmanuel Macron's gesture, "a small step in the right direction" according to the French-speaking daily El Watan.
It "marks a turning point in the process of national memory (which) will encourage many Algerians to demand more recognition and access to archives" from the colonial period (1830-1962), for its part wrote the Arabic-speaking daily. Echorouk.
The confession of the assassination of Ali Boumendjel, disguised at the time as suicide, is one of the appeasement gestures recommended by the historian Benjamin Stora in his report on colonization and the Algerian war, in order to resolve the tensions surrounding the memory of this conflict.
Late and insufficient
While the 60th anniversary of the end of the war and of the independence of Algeria will be celebrated in 2022, the “reconciliation of memories” is a priority issue between Algiers and Paris.
Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune - who advocated “a dialogue without prejudice” - have committed to working together on this memorial issue.
Last July, Paris had already made a "strong" gesture by returning to Algiers the remains of 24 Algerian nationalists killed at the start of French colonization in the 19th century.
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As early as 2018, Emmanuel Macron had taken a historic step in the work of memory on the Algerian war by asking forgiveness from the widow of Maurice Audin, a communist activist who died under torture.
However, for many Algerians - historians in particular - President Macron's “symbolic acts” are late and insufficient.
"France must recognize that it has committed crimes against humanity in Algeria, countless crimes against Algerians", declared Wednesday Mustapha Bouchachi, lawyer and human rights activist.
In addition to the dispute over colonial archives, the Algerian authorities also want to put back on the table the file of the "disappeared" during the war of independence (1954-1962), more than 2,200 people according to Algiers, and that of French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara which "made and continue to make victims".
