France to open Algerian War archives 15 years before legal deadline
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France is set to declassify the archives of the judicial investigations of the Algerian War, in order to reconstruct several matters with Algeria, announces the French Culture Minister.
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France's Culture Minister stressed that her country wants to rebuild several ties with Algeria.
The French Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, announced the imminent declassification of the archive of the Algerian War's judicial investigations after nearly 60 years.
Bachelot told BFMTV on Friday that she is opening the archive of judicial investigations for the gendarmerie and police forces during the war on Algeria, 15 years before the legal time limit.
The Minister stressed that France wants to rebuild several ties with Algeria, but this process can only be advanced on the basis of the truth.
Answering a question about the repercussions of this decision, especially the possible future confession that the French army committed torture in Algeria, she replied that it is in France's interest to acknowledge that torture actually happened.
Guerre d'Algérie: Roselyne Bachelot (@R_Bachelot) annonce qu'elle ouvre "avec 15 ans d'avance" les archives sur les enquêtes judiciaires pic.twitter.com/RGEtCXyfmC
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) December 10, 2021
In the same context, a group of deputies in the French General Assembly announced introducing a bill under which the French authorities would recognize responsibility for the massacres of October 17, 1961, in which dozens of Algerians in Paris were martyred for protesting against a discriminatory curfew targeting Algerians in the French capital.
The French Minister of Culture's statements come one day before Algeria revives the anniversary of the demonstrations of December 11, 1960, which witnessed French soldiers killing dozens of peaceful Algerian protestors demanding freedom and independence.
The statements also come two days after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Algeria and met with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and several senior state officials.
Le Drian said his visit aims to mend relations between France and Algeria.
In October, a diplomatic crisis erupted between France and Algeria after French President Emmanuel Macron made several controversial, shocking, and unprecedented statements toward Algeria and its president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whom he accused of being influenced by those around him despite the good relations Macron said he has with the Algerian president.
In an interview for German magazine Der Spiegel, the Algerian President said his French counterpart had 'humiliated' the Algerians.
Tebboune considered Macron's statements whereby he questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before French colonialism as "extremely dangerous".
