Weeks Before Closing Of Files’ Submission To Compensate Algerians Victimized During Liberation War

The deadline for depositing files of the request for compensation from Algerian civilians who were victims of the liberation war with the French authorities is to expire within a few weeks, once the relevant law is published in the Official Gazette of the French Republic, as amended by the Law on Military Pensions, Disabled Persons and War Victims.

The French Senate on June 19 approved the amendment to the compensation of Algerian civilian victims in the war of liberation under the Military Pensions, Disabled Persons and War Victims Act of the French Military Plan spanning 2019/2025, which officially rescinded the French citizenship requirement to benefit from such compensation.

The amendment document, of which “Echorouk” has a copy, said that article 116 of the Military Pensions Act had dropped the term “from a French nationality until 4 August 1963”, which thus allows Algerian civilian victims to also submit their files.

The French authorities took the process of filing files in great secrecy. The order was limited to an unpublished declaration contained in a report of the Foreign Affairs Committee on May 23, which pointed out only briefly that the files opened the way for their filing on 8 February 2018, without revealing the details,

The French Senate had previously indicated in a report that the amendment must be made in a manner that prevents the collapse of files by Algerians wishing to secure such compensation.

There are many questions about the French authorities’ move. On the one hand, it came very late, 56 years after the hard-won independence of Algeria, and most of the civilian victims who were subjected to violence and torture by the French colonial army had now died, that is, the youngest healthy person in this regard is now about 56 years old.

The French authorities can also take this action as an excuse to shirk demands for recognition and apology from Algeria concerning the horrendous French war crimes committed during the French colonial yoke, arguing that they have compensated civilian victims.

It is not unlikely that this file will be given the same fate as the hapless victims of the devastating French nuclear tests, which are still in place despite the untold damage inflicted in the southern Algerian region of Reggane and their nefarious effects on men, environment and animals at that time.