#2 Ok, I'll leave JFM comment on this. My view on the subject from a somewhat young guy who was taught in school and by the whole chattering class that the french colonization of algeria was a crime against humanity, and who made his mind slowly about that...
French or french citizens (lotsa naturalized spaniards & italaians) BUILT algeria. algeria DIDN'T exist as a country, before it was invaded (mostly) BECAUSE of the constant piracy from algiers, up to and including slavves-snatching raids up to the coast of the UK... Not only was the country CREATED by France, but all of its ressources and even its population growth were created ex-nihilo by France... agriculture was so primitive (remember, back in the antiquity, before the arab invasion, north africa was an advanced and rich area), infrastructures were so limited, hygiena was so bad, that the french humanists actually were very concerned that the local population was going to be extinct (incredible infant mortality, way higher than in european middle-ages),...
After the counter-insurgency war was won, de gaulle sold the french algerians down the river, and when the FLN immediatly went against the "peace" accord and started giving them the choice between being chased out with only their clothes on, or being slaughtered, the french army was ordered to SHOOT unarmed crowds of pieds noirs (french algerians), BOMB their neighbourhoods, and DISARM the harkis (muslim algerians fighting for France, who outnumbered the "independentists" something like 10:1). So, pieds noirs had to flee a country where they had lived for 130 years, and were badly welcomed in France, with an indifferent/hostile population (commies again), zero aid from the State, while the harkis were slaughtered in unfashionably cruel ways (just like the war led by the FLN was marred by acts of obscene cruelty you wouldn't think are possible if you saw them in one of those "saw" flicks, roasting babies like chicken, or slitting the throats of entire villages, mutilating prisoners by poking their eyes out or removing the flesh from their forearms to the bones... the FLN killed way more muslim than french, by the way, as it used mass terror to gain control of the population)... estimates range from 30 000 to 100 000 killed in just a few weeks.
Harkis fleeing to France were welcomed by the gaullist power, which put them in ACTUAL concentration camps, where they remained until the early 80's.
De gaulle had his Grand Plan about France become a thrid way between the USa and the USSR, much to the delight of the USSR, overjoyed by such an useful idiot to divide the western camp. The sahara oil and natural gas were GIVEN to algeria (which had never had any kind of historical claim on the region), and up to this day, France buys algeria natural gas ABOVE market price, as a kind of subsidiy.
Of course, algeria went straight into moscow camp, and even now, the attitude of algiers regarding France was and is very hostile, France is a scapegoat for the regime's totalitarian an inept nature, and everything is done to teach hatred for the former colonizing power to the algerian population, with great success it seems. As a note, according to a speech by an algerian minister, there are 4 MILLIONS algerians living in France in 2008, and believe me, algiers didn't renounce to its networks, overt or not, and "french" algerians do not feel french at all, but algerian (just recently, there was a scandal by the usual anti-racist suspect, because a french para NCO wiped his boot with an algerian flag... which had been found in possession of a "french" paratrooper... the "french" paras who saw him do that denounced him to the mimitary brass, who quickly apologized and went into full-multiculti mode with the colonel apologizing via a press communique and all)...
what can I say more? French cemetaries in algeria not only are not cared for like the independence treaty specified, but are even degraded and desacrated; during the flight of french algerians, many were kidnapped by the FLN, never to be seen again, thousands upon thousands, and it is now known for a fact that many men were sent to forced labor in mines, and that women and girls were sent to brothels - the gaullist power was of course fully aware of that, and never raised a complaint (algerian military guys boasted of the sex-slaves to their french counterparts during cooperation).
Also, algeria is NOT on the West's side in the WOT. It is not a secular dictatorship, it has been, increasingly, and even now, pushing the islamization and arabization of the country, and the dirty war of the 90's was marked by a very high level of "murkiness", there are lotsa indication to believe part at least of the islamists were infiltrated and manipulated by the military just as the french did during the independence war, and a large part of the late 90's violence was actually intercecine warfare between the islamists, with whole villages controlled by other factions being wiped out to the pets. Also, just to give an example, it is now known that the tiberine monks were kidnapped on behalf of the military (the only uncertain issue is if they were beheaded on purpose, or were killed accidentally, and beheaded post mortem). |
The Algerian lawyer Mr. Benyamina said a huge number of real estate properties are still legally owned by French colons who left them after the Independence of Algeria in 1962, adding that several cases concerning these disputes have been submitted to Algerian courts.