Prosecute France Internationally For Its Horrendous Nuclear Crimes In Algeria

A human rights organization that defends victims of French nuclear crimes in Algeria said that it is preparing a judicial file to be submitted to the International Criminal Court, in response to the French authorities’ failure to respond to the Algerians’ repeated demands for compensation for the hapless victims of these nuclear explosions in the south of the country.

The organization in question is called “ICAN Algeria”, “the office that defends the interests of Algerian, men and women, who suffered from French heinous nuclear crimes in Algeria from 1960 to 1966,” according to a statement received by Echorouk.
The human rights organization justified its decision on the grounds that “France does not want to recognize the horrendous crimes it committed in Algeria,” a move that coincided with the 62nd anniversary of those bombings, which falls on February 13 of each year.

And the statement said: “We have followed what (France) has done so far, and we are determined to defend this just and noble cause, but French politicians always sell us mirages.

The candidate (for the French presidential election) outgoing President Emmanuel Macron pledged action on the matter in his election campaign of 2017, but immediately after his election he changed his words and today he questions even our origin and our separation. Yes, he began to question the existence of the Algerian nation before France brutally colonized our land”.

The organization continued: “On the eve of the 62nd anniversary of the occurrence of the first French nuclear crime in Algeria, which allowed France to enter the nuclear club, the Algerian people, especially the inhabitants of those (southern) regions, entered hell… and the rest you know it…”.

This organization had previously put a digital platform on its official website, in order to open the way for “the participation of a large number of Algerian women and men and their loved ones of Algeria in the effort to file this lawsuit against the French state,” and this coincided with the 61st anniversary of these bombings, which is likely to obtain a big support on the part of the Algerians to proceed with this lawsuit.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had stressed that Algeria will continue to adhere to the demand to be compensated by France for the victims of heinous nuclear explosions. The Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, Lieutenant-General Said Chanegriha, also called on the commander of the French army, General François Lecointre, in a meeting that brought them together, to hand over to Algeria the topographic maps related to the French nuclear explosions, to help identify and cleanse the areas of traces of nuclear radiation, and this re<quest has not been responded to so far.

Whatever the seriousness of this step, it implies a remarkable symbolism, which is to call on the Algerians not to forget the horrendous crimes of the French nuclear explosions in Algeria, which spanned over six years, according to French official documents, and caused cancerous and genetic diseases to innocent people whose only fault was that they lived near the areas of those explosions. In addition to polluting large areas of land with nuclear radiation, Paris still refuses to assume its responsibility in cleaning them of deadly nuclear waste.

Additionally, the French authorities, who tried to delude world public opinion that they are ready to compensate the victims of those bombings as the least they can atone for their guilt, by enacting what was known as the “Moran Law” in 2010, but they set obstacles that are difficult to overcome, notably by placing obstacles in front of the claimants for compensation, such as proving the existence of a direct relationship between disease and nuclear radiation, which are difficult to prove with scientific evidence, according to what many observers of this thorny issue said.

Despite the passage of more than a decade since the enactment of the “Moran Law”, none of the Algerians affected by nuclear radiation was able to obtain financial compensation or medical insurance under that law.