Algeria seeks closure for France’s historic oppression
Rife with hypocrisy, Algeria demands justice from France for historic oppression yet simultaneously attempts to eradicate its indigenous Kabyle population.
While French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated those who fought in World War II on 8th May 2024, Algeria’s President made some strong remarks against France as he remembered the brutal massacres of independence activists on 8th May 1945, The Associated Press reported.
READ: Algeria: MAK group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison
Despite the positive economic, security, and energy relations between France and Algeria, Tebboune remains stuck at the hurdle of historical justice as he called out “the colonizer” in a statement for its “extreme brutality and cruelty, to repress a growing national activist movement that had resulted in massive demonstrations.”
The RFI highlighted the creation of a commission between French and Algerian historians in August 2022, with the intention of addressing colonial difficulties such as the exchange of remains, artefacts, and archives to relieve tension between the two countries.
However, the Kabylie have struggled against Algerian colonialism and oppression since 1963 Ferhat Mhenni, the chief of the Kabyle Independence Movement (MAK) recalled at the 23rd session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in mid-April.
Algeria labelled the Kabyle as a terrorist group in 2021, despite claiming in the same year that they had defeated terrorism.
The Kabyle have been Algeria’s scapegoat for the devastating wildfires and recent coup plot against Tebboune.
The former French colony held ceremonies on 8th May to honour its freedom fighters who paraded the streets of Guelma, Setif and Kherrata in protest of France’s sovereignty over the nation.
Although France issued an official apology as well as financial reparations for the French nuclear tests in the Sahara, Tebboune remains keen to address the lingering tensions with Macron on a trip to France that is scheduled for later this year.
However, tensions between Algeria and France may rise again as Paris-Rabat relations seem to have recently grown stronger through funding power links in the greatly disputed Western Sahara, and anti-terrorist acknowledgements.
AP/RFI
