MPs Pile Pressure On Government To Pass A Bill Criminalizing French Colonialism

The National People’s Assembly begins, on Sunday, discussions on the file of national memory and setting a special national day for this anniversary, in a public session, after more than 5 months of the reopening of the proposal and approving the law criminalizing French colonialism by an initiative that was undertaken by a group of MPs led by a member of the Council on behalf of The Committee for Legal, Administrative Affairs and Freedoms and the representative of Oran province (western Algeria), Kamal Belarbi, who filed an official request with the Council’s office on January 28, 2020, where a draft law proposal was prepared including 50 signatures of MPs at the beginning, bringing the number to 140 MPs currently from various political parties.

In this regard, the MP Kamal Belarbi told Echorouk on Saturday that he, along with his colleagues, had opened the file and proposed the law currently in the parliament’s office and distributed it to the nine vice-presidents, pending its transfer to the General Secretariat of the government for settlement within 60 days.

“The proposal was not sent to the government until the writing of these lines, and the Minister of Mujahideen, Tayeb Zitouni, when he attended the session of the Legal Affairs Committee on a draft law for converting May 8 into a national day, did not oppose the proposed draft law criminalizing colonialism, but showed acceptance and welcomed it saying, “There is no problem”, Belarbi added.

“Our endeavours are continuing through the establishment of a committee by the proposal owners to follow up the draft law criminalizing French colonialism in Algeria, and the follow-up will be from the parliament through the government and then return to the parliament through the National Assembly, and that if the government will approve it after the proposal will be presented to it. We welcome the enrichment of the law by colleagues and experts”.

Regarding the compensation file for the victims of the nuclear tests in Reggane (southern Algeria) and the victims of the Challe and Morice landmines lines, Belarbi explained that with compensation for the victims and the restoration of the stolen archive from 1830 to 1962, including civil status documents, research, administrative documents and property, and 24 million gold coins.

Belarbi asked if Algerians will continue to wait for another 132 years to criminalize France for its crimes against the defenceless Algerian people, and how is it possible that we salute our popular national army, the descendant of the Liberation Army that protects our borders and protects the people and the country, and do not criminalize France and bring the rights of our martyrs because this is a contradiction in the institutions of the state and each other.

“The late President Houari Boumediene had a roadmap to criminalizing colonialism in his time, but after his death, the file remains a question mark”.