Macron urged to set up ‘truth commission’ on Algeria abuses

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out issuing an official apology for abuses committed in Algeria, his office said on Wednesday, as a major report called for a “truth commission” to shed light on France’s colonial past.

The French presidency said there was “no question of showing repentance” or of “presenting an apology” for the occupation of Algeria or the bloody eight-year war that ended 132 years of French rule.

Presidential aides said it was more important to end the culture of “denial and things left unsaid” surrounding France’s past in Algeria and said that Macron would undertake “symbolic acts” of reconciliation.

Historian Benjamin Stora, commissioned by the president with assessing the progress made by France on confronting its past, in a report Wednesday described a “never-ending memory war” between the former colonial power and colony, locked in “competing (claims of) victimisation”.

Stora made a number of proposals, including the creation of a mixed French-Algerian “memory and truth commission” that would hear testimony from people who suffered during the Algerian war and drive efforts at reconciliation.

The atrocities committed by both sides during the 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence continue to strain relations between the two countries six decades later.

Macron, the first president born after the colonial period, has gone further than any of his predecessors in recognising crimes committed by French forces. But he has drawn the line at an official apology, vehemently opposed by many on the French right who view acts of national repentance as acts of betrayal.

Some of the “symbolic acts” planned by Macron include taking part in three days of commemorations next year marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian war, said a presidential aide, who asked not to be named.

One of the days will mark the crackdown on a demonstration by Algerians in France in 1961. Another will commemorate the “Harkis” — Algerians who fought alongside French forces in Algeria and who were forced to flee after the war.

The commemorations were among some of the proposals made by Stora, who said that acknowledging past wrongs is more important than offering apologies.