Zitouni: “Some Parties haven’t digested the truth of colonial France’s defeat at the hands of Algeria”
The Minister of Mujahideen, Tayeb Zitouni, replied, to the recent venomous statements made towards Algeria and its people by some resentful French politicians including former President Nicholas Sarkozy and far-right party leader Marine Le Pen who bitterly evoked the revision and abolition of the Evian agreements, saying this” only increases Algeria’s meritorious pride in its glorious Revolution and its pride in the scope of the defeat of French colonial forces and in retrieving valiantly the country’s hard-won independence and sovereignty.
Mr Tayeb Zitouni who was the guest Sunday of a national first-channel radio program, affirmed that “the Algerian people had paid the independence bill very dearly through untold sacrifices and struggled a very long time to wrench their freedom and independence and the Evian agreements were the result of all this, adding that Algeria is still ready to do a lot for safeguarding and bolstering national unity and cohesion.”
He also said that through his department “the mujahideen are currently collecting testimonials about the different stages of the struggle of the Algerian people against the brutal French colonization.”
After gathering evidence on the history of the revolution and on the huge sacrifices of the Algerian people for the restoration of national sovereignty, the day will come when France will formally apologize and recognize its hideous crimes perpetrated against the Algerian people, he added.
In this regard, Zitouni underscored the importance of the commitment of civil society to its right to claim France’s official apology for the heinous colonial crimes committed in Algeria after the collection of all the ins and outs of the glorious war of liberation.
Regarding the recovery of the full national archives held by France, the minister said that “steps are being taken with the French side for recovering the archives of the liberation war,” affirming that Algeria wishes that France will finally meet this long-standing and bona-fidé request.”
Meanwhile, The Minister of Mujahidine Tayeb Zitouni, also evoked the ongoing finalization at national level, of all matters relating to the pensions of Mujahidine or war veterans and their rightful claimants.
Mr. Zitouni said the Ministry of Mujahideen has been entrusted, under the government’s action plan, with the smooth management of the submitted files of the Mujahideen and their assignees, with the aim of improving their situation notably on the social and health plans.
This improvement results in the scrapping of bureaucratic practices, the easing administrative procedures through digitalized documents, and the spreading of new communication technologies, in order to spare this social category of the population the inconvenience of traveling to other remote wilayas or provinces to retrieve their requested documents, said the Minister.
“These procedures have contributed to the reduction of the files’ processing time, to bring it down to 10 or 15 days at the latest,” the Mujahidine Minister pointed out.
Mr. Zitouni referred to this effect to the priority given by his ministry to the proper writing of the national liberation war history, stressing that this operation has led so far to the achievement of some 12,000 hours of sound and audio-visual recordings, in addition to the archiving of live testimonies from members of the revolutionary family.
The Minister of Mujahidine also spoke about the relations of the National Archives center with Eastern European bloc countries and such a coordination resulted in the retrieval by Algeria of a lot of photographs and confidential documents related to the November revolution, adding that the process is still underway.
Moreover, the minister asserted that documentary films must be screened through the entire national territory, by organizing seminars and conferences to enable new generations to learn about the landmark events and the history of the lofty Revolution of November 1st 1954 which get rid the Algerian people of the harsh French colonial yoke by achieving a hard-won independence on 5th of July 1962.
Mr Tayeb Zitouni finally wished that the sectors of education, higher education, communication, youth, culture and vocational training would contribute to highlighting to rising generations the headlights of historic events of the glorious Algerian revolution.