Benjamin Stora Engaged In A Debate On French Nuclear Explosions In Algeria

This Wednesday, the French historian, Benjamin Stora, author of the famous report on the “memory of the French colonization of Algeria”, opens the file of the French nuclear tests in southern Algeria, a burning issue on which Stora had presented proposals to the French president, which are still unanswered so far.

The French historian will present, through the discussion that the “ICAN France” organization decided to open in a remote video seminar (webinar), accompanied by the “Arms Observatory”, his vision of how to deal with the issue of French nuclear tests in Algeria, which turned into a difficult pending issue.

The French organization, which calls for curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, acknowledges the existence of health consequences for the environment and humans due to the devastating nuclear bombings carried out by Paris in Algeria in the period between 1960 and 1966.

The organization’s discussion came on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary that falls on the thirteenth of February of each year, knowing that France conducted more than 16 nuclear explosions until February 16, 1966, while the health and environmental consequences of nuclear tests on the Algerian population in the south are still being felt, according to the organization.

The authority on the fight against unconventional weapons says: “On January 21, 2021, President Macron received a report on “The Memory of Colonialism and the War in Algeria” drafted by Benjamin Stora at his request.

This report contained a large number of recommendations for strengthening relations between France and Algeria. It also addressed in Section entitled “Other topics. Other Challenges: “The urgent issues to be addressed, especially those related to nuclear testing and abandoned or buried waste”.

This is the topic that “ICAN France” and “Observatory Armaments”, according to their website, highlighted in their study entitled “Under the Sands, Radioactivity”, and this study was published in September of 2020.

Stora had listed the files to be addressed in his report to the French president, in January 2021, and among what he referred to on this issue, “research on French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara and their repercussions, as well as on the laying of anti-personnel mines during the war”.

So far, the French president has not taken any steps regarding the French nuclear explosions in the south of the country, which caused cancerous and other genetic diseases to the Algerians who live in the areas affected by the radiation of those explosions, despite Algeria’s repeated demands for the urgent need to address this sensitive file.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had stressed, in previous statements, that Algeria would continue to adhere to the demand to be compensated by France for the victims of the horrendous nuclear explosions.

The Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, Lieutenant-General Said Chanegriha, also demanded, in a meeting, with the commander of the French army, General Francois Lecointre, to hand over to Algeria the topographic maps related to the French nuclear explosions, to help identify and cleanse the areas of traces of nuclear radiation, a request which has not been responded to so far.

It is known that the French authorities had enacted a law to compensate the victims of French nuclear tests, in what was called the “Moran Law” in 2010, but this law did not enable the Algerians to obtain compensation because of the obstacles it included, which exceeded the possibility of justification limits according to former French soldiers.