Algeria Approves Legislation Declaring France's Colonial Rule a Criminal Act
Algeria’s parliament has voted unanimously for a law stating French colonial rule of the country a crime and called for an apology and compensation.
Legislators, standing in the chamber wearing scarves in the colours of the Algerian flag, chanted “long live Algeria” on the session day as they applauded the approval of the legislation, which declares that the former colonial power holds “accountability for its history of colonisation in Algeria and the atrocities it caused”.
A Significant Crisis and a Political Gesture
The both nations are locked in a major diplomatic crisis and observers note that while Algeria’s action is largely gestural, it is still a major political statement.
“an unambiguous signal, both domestically and internationally, that Algeria’s national memory is not erasable nor negotiable.”
The law enumerates the “crimes of French colonisation”, which encompass nuclear tests, summary executions, “torture” and the “widespread looting of national wealth”.
Call for Reparations
It states that “complete and just compensation for all material and moral damages caused by colonial rule is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people”.
French governance over Algeria from 1830 until 1962 was a era characterized by widespread deaths and forced displacements, all the way up to the bloody war of independence from the mid-1950s to 1962.
- Algerian officials says the conflict claimed one and a half million people.
- Historians in France put the death toll at half a million in all, 400,000 of them from Algeria.
Official Response and Academic Perspective
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has in the past acknowledged the colonisation of Algeria as a “grave injustice” but has stopped short of an official apology.
Questioned last week about the vote, a diplomatic representative stated he would not discuss “internal political matters taking place in other nations”.
A researcher in colonial history, said that “legally, this legislation has little international force and therefore is not binding for France”. However, “its political and symbolic significance is considerable: it signifies a rupture in the relationship with France in terms of memory,” he added.
