France colonialist brutal mentality remembered by Algeria
Algeria-France, Politics, 5/9/2006

Algeria's new agency noted that The 4th international seminar on May,8, 1945 massacres continued yesterday in Guelma with the participation of Algerian and French historians.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's address was read by Moujahideen Minister Mohamed Cherif Abbas, and said in part "Commemorating 8 May 1945 today is first and foremost a response to a duty to tell the truth which goes beyond and must be the basis for the simple duty of memory... May, 8, 1945 'events' and the horrible repression that followed must be fathomed out not like unfortunate accidents, but in their cruel and relentless necessity... Of course, we should not forget the common graves of May 1945, nor the lime kilns of Heliopolis, not even the air raids and navy bombardments, nor the summary executions, rapes, all these mass murders which threw the areas of Setif, Guelma, Kherrata... into an apocalyptic atmosphere."

A WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setif_massacre) description of The Setif killings says "the massacre was an attack on Algerian protesters by colonial French soldiers on May 8, 1945, the same day that Germany surrendered in World War II. Anti-French sentiment had been building across Algeria for months, leading to thousand-person protests in such cities as Mostaganem in the previous weeks. With the end of the European war, fifteen thousand protesters took to the streets of Setif, a town in northern Algeria, to press new demands for independence on the colonial government. The French Army responded with overwhelming force. At around 9 AM on May 8, a crowd chanting "Vive l'independence!" marched on the French forces after the French forces had shot at the flag-carriers, angry to see a flag other than the French flag in the then French colony. French commander General Duval gave the order to fire on the largely unarmed crowds, using machine guns, killing thousands. Saal Bouzid, a young boy carrying the Algerian flag, was among the first to fall, making him an instant martyr to the resistance movement. The French moved swiftly to contain the protests, attacking the neighborhoods and surrounding villages of both Setif and nearby Guelma with artillery and air force bombers. Arbitrary murder and rape by the French forces ensued. The attacks continued until the formal surrender of the tribes on May 22. The ultimate death toll remains contentious, with Algeria claiming more than 45,000 dead."

Bouteflika added "(...) We did not want, and we still do not want, to make the rising generation of Frenchwomen and Frenchmen feel guilty, for in our opinion they do not have to be responsible for what their elders did."

Bouteflika said "It was rather naive to be convinced that France as a whole, State and society alike, would push into in a hidden side of its collective memory this odious and shameful chapter of its history, and that with time, it would positively wave its colonialist drift against people on all three continents goodbye."

Butaflika said France must make an official apology to all those countries that had suffered from the French colonial domination specially the Algerian people who were subjected to French control for a long time and had suffered from all forms of torture and extermination.

Butaflika said that Algeria was peace loving Algerians were peaceful in their own country they know no thing about colonialism they even do not know where France is located all of a sudden in 1830 France invaded them and slaughtered one and half million of them destroyed their country and had kept them backward for more than a century, asking "What is the guilt of the Algerian people The price must be paid now so that it will not happen once again."

Although the Algerian president said this is part of France of the old days, and does not hold president Chirac accountable for it, some still see that old habits are hard to die, as the French president most recently threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iran. Why would a French president say something like this against a country that has done it no harm is a puzzle that only a colonialist mind may be able to explain.

Previous Stories:
  France proclaims medical secrecy to overshadow Butaflika's disease   (12/12/2005)
  Butaflika calls France to admit brutal colonialist past in Algeria   (8/26/2005)
  Algeria's parliament condemns law glorifying French occupation   (7/9/2005)

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