French FM: “We Will Continue Efforts To Help Harkis Return To Algeria”

France will continue to work for the return of the movement and the deportees from Algeria to the lands where they were born, French Foreign Ministry said.

However, it explains that the sensitivity of this file should not be underestimated by the Algerian public opinion and the authorities of this country.

French Foreign Ministry’s position came in its reply dated July 17, on a written question of the MP Damien Adam of the Republican Party “On Marche!” of the President Emmanuel Macron, dated May,29, 2018, which copy is available to Echorouk.

French FM said that the history of the relationships between the two countries was marked by painful incidents, which effects are still existing.

French government is very understanding of what Harkis felt and their families were forced to leave the lands where they were born and where they can not return even if it is their last journey in life.

“President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Algeria at the end of 2017, was clear and expressed his desire to work with Algerians for reconciliation and calm in the memory file”.

According to the source, President Macron announced measures to engage France in this work (reconciliation and calm), and also said he was waiting for similar steps from the Algerian side, to make a gesture towards those who were born on the land of Algeria and want to return to it, adding that some of the Harkis took individual measures to return to Algeria.

According to the same document, “it is necessary not to underestimate the sensitivity of the Harkis’ file for the Algerian public opinion and with the authorities of this country.”

“France will continue to work in this direction for the return of the Harkis and the deportees from Algeria to the lands where they were born”.

This position is the second of its kind for the French Foreign Ministry in less than a month, after its response in early July to a question of the MP, Guy Teissier, when it confirmed that they are in negotiations with Algeria to enable the Harkis to return homeland.

The Organization of the Mujahideen had a direct reaction after the French position, and considered that “for the Algerian state, the Harkis’ file is completely folded, and will not be under any circumstances a bargaining file, it is a French affair that has nothing to do with the Algerian state.”

It asked a question in a statement saying: “Why do the French, who chose the day after the occupation of their country by the Nazis, to cooperate with the occupiers to prosecute them, to inflict the most severe punishment on them and to deprive them of all civil rights?”. At a time when France wants its agents to return back to Algeria.

Following a statement by the Organization of the Mujahideen, the French embassy in Algeria issued a statement saying that the Foreign Minister’s statement had been distorted and denied that Paris was in the process of bargaining against Algeria to impose the return of the Harkis.