Paris To Maintain Secrecy About The Archive Of Nuclear Tests

Despite the importance of the French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to lift the secrecy about the Algerian archive, which is fifty years old, the documents of one of the most sensitive issues, which is the file of the French nuclear tests in the south of the country, remain not concerned with lifting secrecy although it is part of the relevant period of time included in the decision.

The French newspaper “La Dépêche” published an article about Macron’s decision, saying it is an attempt to give an impetus to French-Algerian relationships and move them towards a “new stage”, by purifying them of “taboos” that still poison them, nearly sixty years after Algeria’s independence.

The newspaper described what is happening on the Algiers-Paris axis as “an acceleration of the work of memory” since the report of the historian Benjamin Stora which he submitted on January 20, and called for an increase in the pace of this acceleration by the end of the next five-year period.

According to the same newspaper, the decision of the Elysée Palace goes beyond responding to traditional Algerian demands, to responding to the “demands of the university community”, which complaints about the increasing difficulties in accessing secret archives that are more than 50 years old due to the literal application of the “national defence secret”.

The newspaper adds: “From now on, the (French) National Archives and the services of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces will be able to declassify archives in full boxes and no longer paper by paper as was the case. This would make it possible to shorten the waiting times associated with the declassification procedures, especially concerning documents related to the Algerian war (1954-1962). Researchers will have access to documents dating back to 1970, the year in which the last French soldier left Algeria”.

“This decision would contribute to tracing the “disappeared” from the war (2,200 Algerians according to Algeria), and internal documents that were likely to be issued by the (French) state during this period”, La Depeche added.

The Decision Deprives Thousands Of Victims Of Documenting The Crime

Among the files that will remain secret or highly sensitive, are information related to the nuclear tests that France conducted in the Algerian Sahara in the 1960s, although they fall within the period of time that is included in Macron’s decision, which will cause Algeria’s resentment.

La Depeche quoted a French intelligence officer as saying: “For experts, the opening of the archives should not lead to major discoveries about Algeria. We know everything about military operations, the infiltration of the National Liberation Front or torture. Today, the French army does not defend at all what happened in Algeria”.

For its part, “Le Monde” described the decisions signed by French President Emmanuel Macron as a “policy of small steps” in terms of reconciliation of memory, while commenting on permitting the declassification of the Algerian archives during the liberation revolution.

“What the French President did is part of responding to one of the recommendations of the report of the French historian Benjamin Stora, on the reconciliation of the French-Algerian memory, which, as it is known, left a great controversy in the northern and southern banks of the Mediterranean”, it added.

“This announcement partially responds to the request of academics who complain about obstacles to free access to historical documents, a decision that came less than a week after a similar decision in which President Macron admitted the responsibility of the French state in the murder of the lawyer for the National Liberation Front, the militant Ali Boumendjel in 1957.

“Le Monde” believes that the Elysee Palace’s decision also aims to “enhance the image of Macron” among the French public opinion, among whom there are millions of Algerians, residing on French soil, and have a say in any election, given that the French presidential elections which Macron is betting to win, will be held next year.

According to the same newspaper, Macron aims, behind this decision, to “bridge the gap” between heritage law and criminal law when it comes to archives, noting that this Elysee declaration “provokes divergent reactions in the ranks of the archival historians, fluctuating between satisfaction and caution in the face of other aspects and doubts that have not yet been resolved”.