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Pro-French Algerians sue over treatment in 1962
ONE of the last surviving members of former French president Charles de Gaulleâs government is being sued over the deaths of tens of thousands of pro-French Algerians following allegations they were left to a brutal fate at the end of the Algerian war of independence in the 1960s. Pierre Messmer, the former armed forces minister under General de Gaulle, is at the centre of accusations in a lawsuit filed yesterday in Paris by representatives of the pro-French Algerians. They accuse Mr Messmer, 87, of crimes against humanity, saying he implemented a deliberately racist policy in which white settlers were evacuated to safety by the French forces as the war drew to a close while the pro-French Algerians were left to meet their fate at the hands of the victorious Algerian National Liberation Front. Between 70,000 and 150,000 of them died in the brutal reprisals which followed. The legal action was triggered by a new book, A French Lie by Georges-Marc Benamou, alleging Gen de Gaulle refused any escape route to loyal Algerians in 1962. Mr Messmer claims pro-French Algerians were offered integration into the French army or a small pay-off, and most took the latter.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-11-05 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=20808 |