Ben Brahem: “France wants to know the results of its nuclear tests, and not compensating Algerians”
Fatima Ben Brahem. Photo: archive
Lawyer in charge of the file on Nuclear Tests in Algerian Sahara, lawyer Fatima Ben Brahem, revealed that the article which was developed by France at it embassy in Algiers, about informing and helping the victims in the composition of the file, is the project of other experiments to encourage “Paris” to get the results of nuclear tests for free, and reported that the victims’ files are rejected, and become the property of the French Defense Ministry, and their owners can not retrieve them.
Lawyer Fatima Ben Brahem, told Echorouk, in response to the statements of the French State Secretary to the Defense Minister, in charge of War Veterans and Memory, Jean-Marc Todeschini, regarding the compensation of Algerian victims on nuclear tests; “Many Algerians deposited their files and received negative answers, in addition to the file that the victim becomes the property of the French Defense Ministry while checked in, and the owner is not entitled to get it back.”
“Paris is carrying a malicious project which is making other nuclear tests for free, through deluding victims of nuclear tests in Algerian Sahara, through depositing their files for compensation, but in fact France is working on the maximum amount of files so that they can collect inventory results of nuclear tests for free, especially since the results show that after 50 years of experiments, they will circumvent the Algerians and conduct their free trials to see the results of previous experiences.”
Concerning the statements of the French official, who said that France does not distinguish between the French and Algerian victims in compensation, Ben Brahem said that the French law, “Moran” distinguished between the two, because it does not speak or originally recognize the Algerian victims, and limits the victims, who have the right to compensation, and who were there in the period between January,1, 1960, which is the date of the first bomb on February 1967 on the other hand, not to mention that the law on French military personnel and civilians in that period, and those can not prove their presence in that period in the region with the documents, and she wondered how the Algerians can prove it.
“Law excludes the affected victims after that period, at a time that the dangers of nuclear radiation appears after many years, as Algerians who have been affected after 1967, have no right to any compensation. French politicians speak about this file without knowing precisely what is provided in the “Moran” law.”