Algerian War Veterans Attack Macron, Insist On Asking For Official Apology

The National Organization of Mujahideen (war veterans) intensified its presence in the scene, and has also stepped up its criticism of the French authorities, headed by President Emmanuel Macron, and considered the recent French positions as part of the external challenges facing the country in the “difficult circumstance” it is going through and called for involving it mainly in the memory file.

In this regard, the organization revealed a meeting with Abdelmadjid Chikhi on February 18, the advisor at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of the file of the national memory and the General Director of the National Archives, and said that “this meeting allowed an exchange of views on many aspects related to this thorny file. The context of the meeting is that there is an intention to form a working group to be tasked with undertaking the work”.

It is known that Chikhi was commissioned by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to do work for the sake of memory, and he is accompanied on the French side by the historian Benjamin Stora, who spoke earlier about the difficulties he faced in accomplishing his mission, which he said that the deadlines end before the end of the current year.

In a statement signed by the Acting General Secretary of the National Mujahideen Organization, Mohand Ouamar Benhadj, the organization called for effective participation in this work: “Realizing the organization’s importance and dimensions of this file, and out of its political and historical responsibility in this regard, the National Secretariat asserted that its representation is not limited to what is being undertaken in terms of participation and representation in a symbolic capacity, but the responsible party in deciding in this regard must understand the size of the responsibility it bears and the mujahideen bear it before the souls of their martyrs’ brothers, their people and their generations”.

The organization did not fail to criticize the French authorities, headed by Macron: “Recently, the French media have reported the point of view of the President of this country, Macron, regarding what is being interpreted as a perception of what could be determined in the framework of the dialogue between the Algerian and French parties about what he called shared memory, and we do not know how to imagine this partnership between the aggressor and the victim”.

“This is how the first official of the French state grants himself the right to issue fatwas in determining the conditions that his country would (help) the Algerian state. We are fully aware that this strange approach would enable the grandson of the French occupiers to exempt his country from bearing what it resulted from more than one hundred and thirty years of occupation and the brutal practices against the Algerian people. We do not know how this partnership between the aggressor and the victim can be envisioned”.

The National Organization of the Mujahideen believes that there is no way to escape the official French apology for its crimes in Algeria: “Naturally, this perception constitutes a framework for exempting the French state from its political and historical responsibility regarding the era of occupation and considering this a prelude to its liberation from the crimes committed against Algerians and to ensure its exemption from apology and admission by compensating for what was looted during that painful period”.

The first revolutionary organization in Algeria renewed its reminder of the position of the National Mujahideen Organization, through which it “was keen to confirm the adherence of the Algerian people to their legitimate demands, which cannot be waived because of their connection with the fulfilment of the lives and blood of our righteous martyrs and the enormity of our people’s sacrifices”.