Abdelaziz Belkhadem : “French government must issue a formal apology to Algeria”

Algerian Minister of State and Personal Representative of the President, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, renewed on Saturday Algeria’s call on the French government to issue a formal apology to Algiers and to pay the subsequent compensations to Algerians over France's colonial past. 

• “The colonial power which used to usurp the wealth of Algeria, and exploit, other nations has to apology and pay compensations,” Algeria’s state-run radio quoted Belkhadem as saying in a press conference. “The entire legacy of colonization including, acknowledgement, apology and compensation must be handed down from occupiers to their successors,” the Algerian senior official underscored.
• “Some people try to disregard what has happened and find justifications for colonization », he said.
• “Throughout the French colonial era (1830-1962) the Algerian people had suffered from persecution and usurpation of their property in contravention of the humanitarian values,” he recalled.
• “The Algerian people had been stripped off their basic human rights including their cultural identity,” Belkhadem said, noting that this is the ugliest aspect of colonization.
• Meanwhile, Assaid Abado, secretary-general of the Algerian mujahedeen organization, said his country was preparing to take the issue to United Nations and the International Court of Justice.
• “The organization is consulting international legal experts, historians and academicians over the procedure to sue France for its colonial crimes in Algeria over 130 years,” Abado disclosed.
• Human rights activists in both Algeria and France are demanding apology and compensation for the killing of thousands of Algerians 60 years ago.
• In the so-called “Setif massacre” between 15,000 and 45,000 people were killed by the French troops in May, 1945, historians estimate.
• A number of Algerian law-makers have recently unveiled a motion to adopt a draft law criminalizing France’s colonial past.
• The new legislation comes as response to a law adopted by the French parliament on February 23, 2005, on the positive achievements of the French colonization in North Africa.