Francois Hollander apology for Algerian war.

[Póg mo 1,749]

[https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/voices/francois-hollande-apology-algerian-war-absolve-france-arab-harkis-a7337166.html%3famp

Now France has marched down the road of absolution for its collaboration with the Nazis, its time to close the Algerian chapter. But there's a problem its modern army of Egyptian workers

Now here is a deeply contemporary story. When the French abandoned Algeria in 1962, they also betrayed the tens of thousands of Algerians who fought for them. Stealthily sometimes, quite literally, in the thick of night they stole away from the barracks in which their Harki warriors were sleeping, and left them to their fate at the hands of the FLN (National Liberation Front) nationalists who were to inherit this oil-wealthy and deeply corrupt country. Often, they disarmed the Harkis first, so that their fate came more speedily upon them.

Harki from the Arabic harka is probably best translated as volunteers, auxiliaries who fight for the local master race, in this case France. Their end in Algeria was a despicable affair. So terrifying, in fact so racist that the history of the loyal Harkis who fought for France during the 1956-1962 war of Algerian independence has been the last taboo for the colony which Charles de Gaulle betrayed 54 years ago.

Some young French officers refused to obey their orders they declined to leave their Franco-Algerian soldiers to their deaths and smuggled them aboard military ships heading across the Mediterranean for France. These officers were disciplined for this courageous act of compassion. Those who left their colonial troops to terrible retribution maintained their ranks in the French army.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Póg mo