Did you expect anything from the frogs?
Posted on 05/11/2005 7:39:19 PM PDT by Wiz
ALGIERS, Algeria - France called for improved ties with Algeria but refused to take responsibility Wednesday for the deaths of thousands of people in an uprising against the French occupiers 60 years ago.
The violence apparently began during a celebration of the end of World War II on May 8, 1945, when demonstrators in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag banned by the French. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on the French, killing about two dozen of them.
The uprising spread and the response by French colonial troops grew increasingly harsh in the weeks ahead, including bombardments of villages with a war ship. Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France put the number of Algerian dead at about 15,000 to 20,000.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Saturday compared French methods in the "massacres" to those used by Nazi Germany and asked France to make a "gesture ... to erase this black stain."
Bouteflika said his country had waited for years for France to acknowledge acts committed during its occupation. France ruled Algeria from 1830 until 1962 and finally left after a brutal seven-year war.
French Foreign Ministry's secretary of state, Renaud Muselier, said here that the truth is still not known over what happened.
"The day that the truth is established by historians, we can qualify the facts," Muselier, told reporters here. "But we must move forward with cooperation between the two countries."
"Each of the two sides has its view of these events. For Algerians, it was a war of colonization and for the French it was a war."
Paris and Algiers have been making a special push to improve ties and France reaffirmed Tuesday that it wants to conclude a friendship treaty with Algeria by year's end.
In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said both sides must "examine and overcome the past, including the most painful pages of the colonial period and the war of Algeria."
Good for them! The french are alot of things but at least they know their place in the world. America should take notice and do the same.
The French need little pieces of paper to define their friendships. It is no wonder the French have no friends.
Why should France apologize. The Muslims terrorized Europe for most of their (Islam's) existence. Do the Muslims apologize for invading Europe? Do they apologize for pirating merchant shipping for hundreds of years. Do they apologize for white slaving? F'em.
That's not quite accurate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4413913.stm
I am not familiar with this part of French History. Lets take a quick look. This was France a country that had just gotten free off the Vichy French government, it was run by DeGaulle. It had just been freed from Germany and it used German WW2 tactics to defeat these people. These same people who shipped thousands of Jews to concentration camps Sounds to me like the French were proving again what Pieces of excrement they were and are.
Heres hoping the Algerians lure the french in then kick the snot out of the worthless french.
If you have a bottle of french anything, pour it in the gutter where it belongs.
If you don't have anything french don't start buying their crap now.
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