Pupils must be taught a cleaner side of France's 'dirty war'

From Charles Bremner in Paris
The Times of London
April 01, 2005

FRENCH historians are protesting against a new law that obliges schools to present the country’s colonial exploits in a favourable light, especially in Algeria, where hundreds of thousands were killed in the fight for independence.

 The row, which moved yesterday from academia to the tabloid newspapers, once again shows how deeply France still suffers from the trauma of the eight-year “dirty war” that led to the 1962 withdrawal from a land that was deemed part of French national territory.

 Although France was forced out of Indo-China and its African colonies while Britain was conducting its own painful colonial retreat, no conflict left a legacy like that of Algeria. The current Fifth Republic, with its muscular presidency, was created in 1958 for the late General Charles de Gaulle to tackle the Algerian emergency.

 Eminent historians said this week that the law “imposes an official lie about past crimes and massacres that sometimes went as far as genocide”.

 Benjamin Stora, a leading historian of France’s 132-year rule in Algeria, said yesterday: “France has not tackled its colonial history head-on. This contrasts with the ‘AngloSaxons’, who have introduced post-colonial studies in their universities. We have fallen phenomenally far behind.”

 The law, passed on February 23, orders schools to teach “the positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa”. They must also “give an eminent place . . . to the sacrifices of the combatants of the French Army raised from these territories”.

 The critics are upset because they say that schools already give scant treatment to the colonial era, focusing on France’s “civilising mission”.

 M Stora said that there was no longer silence over the Algerian war because historians had exposed the reality. Among the politically correct thinking classes it is rare to hear a positive word on the French Empire. However, M Stora said that the State was still in “denial” and schools did not relate the truth. Among the officially disputed aspects of the war is the use of torture.

 The State continues to deny that it was systematically used against insurgents, while a mountain of evidence to the contrary has emerged. Parliament included the education clause in legislation aimed at righting some of the injustice inflicted on the Harkis, the 70,000 Algerian soldiers who fought for France, as well as on the one million pieds noirs — locally born colonials in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia who were expelled to La Metropole at independence.

 France took in just 20,000 Harkis, abandoning the rest to their fate as traitors in the eyes of the Algerian National Liberation Front when it took power. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria compared them to Nazi collaborators and more than 40,000 were massacred.

 The Harkis and their descendants account for some 400,000 of the seven million French — including pieds noirs, former soldiers and Algerian immigrants — whose lives are still affected by the largely secret war.

 French relations with Algeria, which suffered up to 500,000 dead, have now been revived up to a point. President Chirac, who fought in the Algerian war as a lieutenant, paid a first state visit to Algiers two years ago. He also said in 2002 that France had badly treated the Harkis and owed them a “duty of truth”.

ALGERIAN WAR
1954: French forces attacked in All Saints Day uprising led by FLN. Paris sends reinforcement


 1957: Battle for Algiers begins

 1958: French Government falls and calls in Charles de Gaulle. Fifth Republic created to give him powerful new executive presidency

 1959: De Gaulle says Algeria forever part of France as fighting rages

 1961: Dissident French officers machinegun de Gaulle’s car near Paris. He escapes unscathed

 1962: De Gaulle signs Evian accords granting independence to end war that left about 500,000 dead, mostly Algerians; according to historians Algerian official figure is 1.5 million dead

 1962: Exodus of 1.3 million pieds noirs. FLN Government massacres about 30,000 Harkis as traitors

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1549518,00.html