Emmanuel Macron Vows To Handle Harkis File

President Emmanuel Macron does not mind the enactment of a law considerate this category of people and recognize their sacrifices for France during the Algerian revolution, representatives of the Harkis’ Association in France said on Monday.

“The most important thing in the meeting is that Macron did not object to the principle of enacting a law to considerate this category”, said Gassimi Bouazza, head of the National Committee of the Harkis Association in France.

According to him, the French President pledged to set up a homogeneous and representative working group for all associations of the movement to consider the raised demands.

He explained that Macron expressed his willingness to progress in addressing this file, through the fairness of the Harkis memory and reveals the truth about what is called “their suffering”.

In the past few days, members of the Harki associations in France launched a hunger strike to meet Emmanuel Macron meet after failing to meet with his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

French media quoted Gassmi Bouazza, head of the National Committee of the Harki Association, as saying that he received a call from the French presidency on the admission of Emmanuel Macron to meet with their representatives on Monday (September 25th), which coincides with the revival of the Harkis Day.

According to the same spokesman, Macron promised, during the presidential elections’ campaign to receive them, to consider the demands of these associations.

“We want a national debate on the Harkis issue and negotiations to address the damage that is done to a whole generation that was sacrificed in camps and even in prisons.”

For his part, Houcine Louanchi, head of the so-called National Confederation of Muslims who were expelled from Algeria, that they want through the meeting to present their demands, in particular the enactment of a “law to re-consider the Harkis rights, as to be voted by the parliament and signed by the President.”

Historians confirm that after Algeria’s independence, over 60.000 Harkis with families, traveled to France with the colonial army, while tens of thousands remained in Algeria.

French media say the Harkis and their families are today a large community in France, which makes up half a million people.