Harki families' anger grows over infant graves scandal
Earlier this year the lost remains of 27 infants were finally discovered in shallow graves close to a former French military camp used 60 years ago to intern Harkis, the Algerian auxiliaries who fought alongside France’s army in the Algerian war of Independence, and their families. The infants, whose parents were reluctantly admitted to France in 1962, were among 31 recorded to have died amid the harsh conditions at the isolated camp in southern France. But despite announcements of a future memorial cemetery for the children, their families are increasingly angry at the delays for a search to begin for the other missing remains, and call for the opening of an investigation into the many mysteries surrounding the events. Prisca Borrel reports.
FollowingFollowing the official end of the bloody seven-year Algerian War of Independence in 1962, concluded by the Évian peace accords in March that year after 132 years of French colonial rule , tens of thousands of Harkis, the name given to Algerian auxiliaries who fought to alongside France’s army, were massacred in the North African country, along with their families, who were denounced as traitors to the independence cause.
