Butaflika calls France to admit brutal colonialist past in Algeria
Algeria-France, Politics, 8/26/2005

The Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika renewed today his call on France to admit it had tortured and killed Algerians during its colonial rule which lasted for 132 years.

In a speech in Steif province in the east of the country on the occasion of a gathering to support a reconciliation and pardon law in Algeria, Butaflika said that Algeria wants to remind its friends in France that it has no way but to admit the mistakes committed in Algeria and to admit it tortured and killed Algerians.

In recent months Algeria escalated its campaign to push the French authorities to admit its colonialist history in Algeria but so far had not asked for compensation as demanded by several historians and organizations.

In May this year, Butaflika compared the French colonialism in Algeria to Nazis. This was expressed in the 60th anniversary of what is known in Algeria "the massacres in Qalemsa, Steif and Kharatta". A matter which provoked the anger of the French authorities.

Butaflika said then in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro that the "massacres of 1945 were a punishment for the Algerians over their historical defense for France. Who is the one not to remember the gas furnaces installed by the French occupation in Qalma ( East al-Algeria. They are identical to the furnaces of the Nazist holocaust."

The Algerian authorities said that the massacres which took place on May 8, 1945 killed 45,000 persons in several days, while Europena historians said it resulted in killing between 15,000 and 20,000 when the French forces opened fire at scores of thousands of Algerians who took the streets demanding independence after the end of the second world war.

In recent years, relations between the two countries have improved. They are now preparing to sign a friendship agreement by the end of this year similar to that signed between France and Germany in 1963.

However, the Algerian president has for several years been calling on France to apologize in every and each historical event related to independence, the revolution's anniversary or the anniversary of the massacres of Qalma, Steif and Kharatta.

Previous Stories:
  Algeria's parliament condemns law glorifying French occupation   (7/9/2005)
  Algeria's parliament condemns law glorifying French occupation   (7/9/2005)
  Chirac discusses with Butaflika Arab summit agenda   (3/21/2005)
  Bu Taflika remembers thousands of Algerian soldiers killed in First World War   (6/17/2000)

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