Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday the death of General François Meyer, an officer who had taken up the cause of defending the harkis, these Muslims who served the French army during the Algerian war.
At the end of this war (1954-1962), recalls the president in a tribute statement, François Meyer had decided "
to exfiltrate by his own means his men and their families to the metropolis, in flagrant contradiction with the official directives
".
While thousands of harkis were hunted down and killed in Algeria, he had 350 people embarked for France.
Read alsoFrançois Meyer, in the name of all harkis
"
After having saved his men and their families
", writes the president, "
he devotes his energy to looking for French villages to welcome them, which he finally finds in Lozère.
The harkis who settled there became farmers.
For years, he spends all his permissions there and deploys tireless efforts to help their integration.
He also works to maintain the memory of his former comrades-in-arms, in the press and at conferences, publishing a book about them in 2005
”.
In September 2021, Emmanuel Macron presented François Meyer with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, during a reception at the Élysée devoted to harkis.
That day, the head of state had asked "
forgiveness
" to the harkis on behalf of France for their tragedy.
Le Figaro had met General François Meyer in February 2021.
“In reality, I only respected the word that I had given to my men
, assured the general, returning to his story.
It was a matter of honor and moral responsibility.
Because I believe I experienced a war whose reality still eludes many French people, a civil war of extreme violence between Algerians at the time of decolonization.
I specify that I never promised my soldiers that France would remain in Algeria.
I simply assured my harkis that I would stay with them until the end.
As Christopher Columbus may have said: “It is a tradition among the admirals of Castile to choose death rather than abandon a single one of their men.
