Algerian war vetran Louizet Aghil Ahriz: “Gen. Marcel Bigeard was able to apologize to Algerian people and free his conscience from sufferance before dyingâ€
Algerian war veteran Louizet Aghil Ahriz says the French Gen. Marcel Bigeard, who led French forces in colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria, was able to apologize to Algerian people and free his conscience from sufferance before dying so as his soul can sleep in rest.
- “I thought until the last minutes the torturer of Algerians during the years of French colonialism he would admit his crimes and apologize to Algerians. The name of Marcel Bigeard is synonymous with death and torture in Algeria, and e would have been able to free his conscience before dying. I am disappointed and I am really sorry for that end”.
- “Today he is in the hands of Allah and would be obliged to answer for his crimes. I wish he will find punishment he deserves”.
- Ahriz reopened the file of torture during the Algerian revolution in 2000 and revived controversy in her diaries collected by the French newspaper Le Monde, as her testimonies were renewed in the book “Algerian Woman”, released on 2001, which affirms her personal sufferance due to torture in Algiers by French soldiers of the X legion of paratroops in the preiod between September 29th and December 20th 1957 following Bigeard’s orders.
- In response to those testimonies, Gen. Bigeard said on July 2000 torture was an inevitable evil because it was a political task, denying that he committed personal torture.
- Death of the executioner Marcel Bigeard here on Friday at the age of 94, makes the event that re-opens the wounds of Algerian revolution and the file of French torture.
- French General Marcel Bigeard best known for his role in France’s colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria, has died aged 94.