Pupils must be taught a cleaner side of France's 'dirty war'

The Times ^ | April 1, 2005 | Charles Bremner

[MadIvan]

FRENCH historians are protesting against a new law that obliges schools to present the country’s colonial exploits in a favourable light, especially in Algeria, where hundreds of thousands were killed in the fight for independence.

The row, which moved yesterday from academia to the tabloid newspapers, once again shows how deeply France still suffers from the trauma of the eight-year “dirty war” that led to the 1962 withdrawal from a land that was deemed part of French national territory.

Although France was forced out of Indo-China and its African colonies while Britain was conducting its own painful colonial retreat, no conflict left a legacy like that of Algeria. The current Fifth Republic, with its muscular presidency, was created in 1958 for the late General Charles de Gaulle to tackle the Algerian emergency.

Eminent historians said this week that the law “imposes an official lie about past crimes and massacres that sometimes went as far as genocide”.

Benjamin Stora, a leading historian of France’s 132-year rule in Algeria, said yesterday: “France has not tackled its colonial history head-on. This contrasts with the ‘AngloSaxons’, who have introduced post-colonial studies in their universities. We have fallen phenomenally far behind.”

The law, passed on February 23, orders schools to teach “the positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa”. They must also “give an eminent place . . . to the sacrifices of the combatants of the French Army raised from these territories”.

The critics are upset because they say that schools already give scant treatment to the colonial era, focusing on France’s “civilising mission”.

M Stora said that there was no longer silence over the Algerian war because historians had exposed the reality. Among the politically correct thinking classes it is rare to hear a positive word on the French Empire. However, M Stora said that the State was still in “denial” and schools did not relate the truth. Among the officially disputed aspects of the war is the use of torture.

The State continues to deny that it was systematically used against insurgents, while a mountain of evidence to the contrary has emerged. Parliament included the education clause in legislation aimed at righting some of the injustice inflicted on the Harkis, the 70,000 Algerian soldiers who fought for France, as well as on the one million pieds noirs — locally born colonials in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia who were expelled to La Metropole at independence.

France took in just 20,000 Harkis, abandoning the rest to their fate as traitors in the eyes of the Algerian National Liberation Front when it took power. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria compared them to Nazi collaborators and more than 40,000 were massacred.

The Harkis and their descendants account for some 400,000 of the seven million French — including pieds noirs, former soldiers and Algerian immigrants — whose lives are still affected by the largely secret war.

French relations with Algeria, which suffered up to 500,000 dead, have now been revived up to a point. President Chirac, who fought in the Algerian war as a lieutenant, paid a first state visit to Algiers two years ago. He also said in 2002 that France had badly treated the Harkis and owed them a “duty of truth”.

ALGERIAN WAR

# 1954: French forces attacked in All Saints Day uprising led by FLN. Paris sends reinforcement

# 1957: Battle for Algiers begins

# 1958: French Government falls and calls in Charles de Gaulle. Fifth Republic created to give him powerful new executive presidency

# 1959: De Gaulle says Algeria forever part of France as fighting rages

# 1961: Dissident French officers machinegun de Gaulle’s car near Paris. He escapes unscathed

# 1962: De Gaulle signs Evian accords granting independence to end war that left about 500,000 dead, mostly Algerians; according to historians Algerian official figure is 1.5 million dead

# 1962: Exodus of 1.3 million pieds noirs. FLN Government massacres about 30,000 Harkis as traitors

[MadIvan]

Next, they're likely to teach that France actually won the war. :)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[headsonpikes]

Next, they're likely to teach that France actually won the war. :)

Well, no one sunk their navy during the Algerian unpleasantness. ;^)

[Sthitch]

“France has not tackled its colonial history head-on. This contrasts with the ‘AngloSaxons’, who have introduced post-colonial studies in their universities. We have fallen phenomenally far behind.”

Yeah, but we are doing it very miserably. Many high school and universities only teach about the colonial period in a very gratuitous manner, nothing is put into context. Otherwise we would not have meaningless show trials of the Columbus, the calls for stripping schools of the names of the founding fathers. I could go on and on, but it just p!sses me off to think about it.

[tet68]

We have fallen phenomenally far behind.”

Well, they were never ahead.

I'm reminded of the story of the tortise and the hare
as a communist fable.
The USSR and the US had a race, which the US car won,
but it was reported in Pravda as ,
"Powerful product of dialectic engineering finishes second,
American car finishes next to last.

[Owl558]

What about their academic freedom????? Quick, someone call Ward Churchill's office. American acedemia to the rescue...

[/sarcasm off]

It just shows the length to which the French government will stoop to maintain their envelope of lies. Of course, except for the coersion of law, they are no different from the leftist scum in American colleges.

[LonePalm]

I would like to speak up in favor of the French.

Well, at least my ancestors who left France to invade England. They were successful. Here's to the Normands!!

The rest of the family got out with les Huguenots.

And let's not forget he food.

Il n'y a pas d'honte être français. Il y a seulement l'honte dans rester de français.
(There is no shame in being French. There is only shame in staying French.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[oasaf]

I am a PiedNoir, white african from algeria. We had been there since 1840, of course big colonialists, family of fishermen. If you want to see and maybe learn the other side, go to our website : www.algerie-francaise.org and click on "english documents" which are really french docus translated in english. Look at the pics and see what the FLN really did not only against us but also against their own people. Also you have the massacre in Oran on 5th July 62, from algerian sources more than 15,000 (Out of 200,000) PiedNoirs were butchered in 6 hours. Also the sac of Bab-el-Oued by the french army and the massacre of 26 march62 in Isly street, 82 killed 200 wounded, these "glorious " actions from the french army against us the PNs.
As for Benjamin Stora, he is just an over rated scribbler who pretend to be an historian. His analisys is always put in question by others.
As for the harkis, the real number, this from secret french gov reports, is close to 80,000 butchered after independance. For PNs the figure from march to august 62 is 25,000 out of 1 million.
We can't even get justice, nor for us nor for our harkis friends. So all left to us is to scream the truth and as usual fight alone against the world, but this we are well used to do.
As I am a revisionist, I apply this to all history, including the algerian war.
One last note for those who do not know us: I, as well as a lot of PN, have no hate toward the arabs; the FLN terrorist yes no problem, I find one I run him over. But for myself like many other PNs we owe our life to arab friends. During the Oran massacre some arab got killed trying to protect their PN friends, somem went into the brothels, the camps to get their PN friends out.
Arriba Bab-el-Oued Vive l'OAS

[spect8or]

Come on people, enough with the French bashing. Despite the French government's on current international issues, at least they don't cower to "shame on us!" leftie educationists on the home front.

So freakin what if a few towel heads got mistreated by the French colonial government? The Arabs from that region had been raiding Europeans and taking slaves (yes, that word: slaves! Around a _million_) for too long anyway. They pretty much deserved it.

Why should the French degrade 100+ year history of French Algeria just to appease a pack of rabid Arabs? Arabs, whose own versions of history, say absolutely nothing about how terrible they themselves and fellow co-religionist Muslims have been throughout the centuries. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Do you guys, as Americans, want to see your schools teaching how "terrible" it was that the southwest states were won from Mexico? Aren't you yourselves sick enough yet of having to celebrate everyone else's cultures except for the white American culture that actually made America great in the first place? Well after you've answered those questions the way I expect you would, perhaps consider that the French feel similarly about their own country.

[MikefromOhio]

sniff sniff sniff....

anyone?

[MikefromOhio]

spect8or
Since Apr 24, 2005

And that little rant was your first post??

Interesting....

[spect8or]

Yeah, Mikey, interesting. Ve-ery interesting...

[Darksheare]

Yes troll, VERY interesting.