Keyword: Harkis

Macron asks Harkis to 'pardon' France and opens door to compensation

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President Emmanuel Macron awarding Harki veteran Salah Abdelkrim the Légion d’honneur, September 20th 2021. © Gonzalo Fuentes / Pool / AFP President Emmanuel Macron awarding Harki veteran Salah Abdelkrim the Légion d’honneur, September 20th 2021. © Gonzalo Fuentes / Pool / AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his government will soon present draft legislation to allow for the payment of compensation to the Harki community, in recognition of “the dereliction” of the French state’s duty towards them. The Harkis were the Algerian paramilitary who fought under the orders of the French army during the Algerian War of Independence. About 90,000 of the auxiliaries and family members fled to France to escape imprisonment and executions after Algeria gained independence in 1962. More than half of them were kept for decades in camps in dire conditions, abandoned by successive governments. Rachida El Azzouzi reports.

 

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Macron honours Algerians who fought for colonial France

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President Emmanuel Macron has announced the bestowing of national honours to members of the community known as the Harkis, the Algerians who fought alongside the French army in the North African country's bloody war of independence, in his continuing bid to soften the still bitter divisions of left over from the Algerian war. 

Algerians angry at France over Macron comment

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Tweet by French president hinted that Harkis - who fought on France's side in War of Independence - should be welcomed back to Algeria.

The Vichy deportation camp that is a 'permanent stain' on France

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A senior figure in the Socialist Party has angrily criticised French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti for allegedly snubbing Rivesaltes, a former internment and deportation camp in southern France which is set to become a memorial in 2015, during a recent trip to the area. The culture minister has dismissed the claims as 'absurd'. To understand the importance of the memorial site behind this political squabble, Mediapart asked historian Denis Peschanski to describe the political and historical issues at stake in a camp that revives some of the worst memories of the Second World War in France. Antoine Perraud reports.