France Ordered The Assassination Of French Citizens Who Supported Algeria’s Liberation Revolution

France ordered its intelligence agents during the Algerian Liberation War, especially between 1956 and 1962, to assassinate French citizens who were supporters of the National Liberation Front, the French Investigative journalist, Jacques Follorou, wrote in an article published in the newspaper “Le Monde” on Friday.

Jacques Follorou indicated, in the same article, that there were “documents that revealed projects to get rid of French, Europeans and foreign dignitaries during the Algerian Liberation War”, and mentioned in particular the book “Les Tueurs de la République” by Vincent Nouzille, some excerpts from the private archive of Jacques Foccart, “who was trusted by General de Gaulle and was charged with following up on intelligence and African issues”.

The journalist explained that “in the summer of 1958, amidst the complete secrecy of the regime of General de Gaulle, who returned to the fore after the coup of May 13th, Jacques Foccart, under the command of the General, coordinated a program of covert operations during the liberation war by resorting to threats, attacks, sabotage and even assassination”.

“These tasks were entrusted to the Labor Department of the Foreign Documentation and Counter-Intelligence Service (the General Directorate of External Security at present)”, he explained adding that “Constantin Melnik, who was the advisor to the Prime Minister in charge of intelligence issues from 1959 to 1962, spoke of 140 assassinations committed in 1960 alone, without giving details”.

In this context, the journalist referred to a document dated August 5, 1958, under the title “Memorandum on Homo Targets (a technical word referring to assassinations), that includes a list of 9 people to get rid of them, classified into three categories”.

The issue is related to the “French supporters of the National Liberation Front”, including Jacques Favrel, a journalist residing in Algiers, and the “smugglers” category, which consists of six names (from arms sellers in addition to those close to the National Liberation Front, including an Austrian and German, and a French Muslim Algerian who belongs to the smuggling network of dissident legions, and finally the “political category”.

The source explained, “This list has received the approval of Admiral Georges Cabanier, who is the Chief of Staff of the National Defense attached to General De Gaulle in the presidency of the Council.” According to the journalist, “The only documentary evidence available to date about the assassinations carried out by France is only one of the nine people mentioned in this list”.

“This document, issued by Jacques Foccart’s archive on August 1, 1958, followed the same path, and it is related to the German Wilhelm Schulz Lezum, who disrupted the French interests in Algeria”.

The investigative journalist added that “the other document in Vincent Nouzille’s book summarizes in the form of a table about all the operations that have been carried out since January 01, 1956, including assassinations, sabotage and assaults, referring to their aim, location, methods used in that and their results”.

“Out of the 38 operations that were discussed in detail, 17 operations succeeded and 17 others were cancelled, especially by a superior order or suspicious security, while 4 others failed”.

The summary (without date), which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the intelligence activity at that time, stops in March 1958, but 9 operations were mentioned that they were in the preparation stage.