La Guerre d'Algérie

J'ai commencé à m'intéresser sur la Guerre d'Algérie pendant une cours la semaine dernier. J'ai fait des recherches sur les événements et je veux ranconte - mais en anglais parce que si non je serai aussi tourjour!!!

The Algerian War, also known as Algerian War of Independence, took place between 1954 and 1962 and led to Algerian independence from France. One of the most important decolonization wars, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, terrorism against civilians, use of torture on both sides and counter-terrorism operations by the French Army.

In March 1954 Ahmed Ben Bella, an ex-sergeant in the French army, joined eight other Algerian exiles in Egypt to form a revolutionary committee that later became known as the National LiberationFront (Front de Libération Nationale, FLN). A few months later (November 1), the FLN launched its bid for Algerian independence by coordinated attacks on public buildings, military and police posts, and communications installations.
A steady rise in guerrilla action over the next two years forced the French to bring in reinforcements; eventually 400, 000 French troops were stationed in Algeria. FLN strategy combined Abd al-Qadir's guerrilla tactics with deliberate use of terrorism. The guerrilla tactics effectively immobilized superior French forces, while indiscriminate murders and kidnappings of Europeans and Muslims who did not actively support the FLN created a climate of fear throughout the country. This in turn brought counterterrorism, as colons and French army units raided Muslim villages and slaughtered the civilian population.

In 1956 the war spread to the cities. In Algiers, cafés, schools, and shops became targets, as the nationalists sought to weaken colon morale and draw international attention to their cause. The Algiers uprising was ruthlessly put down. Elsewhere, the French gradually gained the upper hand by using new tactics. Collective punishment was meted out to whole villages suspected of aiding guerrillas. Other groups were deported to guarded refugee camps. Electrified fences along the Tunisian and Moroccan borders cut off the main FLN army from units inside Algeria.
Despite their military superiority, the French were unable to find a political solution satisfactory to both the colons and the FLN. International criticism of France increased, and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization worried about the commitment of French forces to an unpopular war.
In May 1958 the colons and French army officers joined hands in Algiers to overthrow the French government, charging it with vacillation. A Committee of Public Safety demanded the return to office of General Charles de Gaulle, the wartime leader of the Free French, as the only one who could settle the war and preserve French Algeria. De Gaulle, however, was a realist. Once in power, he recognized that the war was unwinnable. In 1959 he announced his intention of allowing Algerians to choose between independence and continued association with France.
The plan struck the colons like a thunderbolt. Outraged, they staged an unsuccessful revolt against de Gaulle early in 1960, and in 1961 a group of army generals again tried to overthrow him. Both times, however, the bulk of the army remained loyal to the government. Associated with the generals' plot was a group of military and colon extremists, called the Secret Army Organization, which at the same time carried on a brutal campaign of counterterrorism against both the FLN and French authorities.
In March 1962 a cease-fire was finally arranged between government and FLN representatives at Evian, France. In the long-awaited referendum, held the following July, Algeria voted overwhelmingly for independence. The colons began a mass evacuation; before the end of the year most of them had left the country.

The Algerian war is a founding event of Algerian history. It left long-standing scars in French society, and still affects some segments of society in present-day France. The French state itself refused to see in the colonial conflict a war, as that would recognize the other party (the National Liberation Front, FLN) as a legitimate entity. Thus, the military did not consider themselves tied by the Geneva Conventions, ratified by France in 1951. Beside prohibiting the use of torture, the Geneva Conventions give the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to the detainees. Detainees, who included not only FLN members but also old men, women and children, were thus not granted prisoner of war (POW) status. On the contrary, they were considered as "terrorists" and deprived of the rights which are legally entitled to belligerents during a war, including cases of civil wars under Geneva Convention Protocol II.

However, after the 1997 legislative elections won by the Socialist Party (PS), the National Assembly officially acknowledged in June 1999, a full 37 years after the Evian agreements, that a "war" had taken place (official terminology was a "public order operation");while the Paris massacre of 1961 was recognized by the French state only in October 2001; on the other hand the Oran massacre of 1962 by the FLN has not been recognized yet by the Algerian state. Relations between France and Algeria are still deeply marked by this conflict and its aftermath.

J'espere que ça t'intéresse aussi et que tu as appris un peu plus sur le France et sa histoire.