Algeria has announced that it has welcomed France’s decision to finally admit that its soldiers tortured and murdered a key figure in the country’s independence struggle during the post-colonial era.
‘Algeria notes with satisfaction the announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron of his decision to honour the fighter and martyr Ali Boumendjel,’ an official statement from the north African President said on Thursday.
The admission ‘comes in the framework of good intentions and a genuine desire to strengthen dialogue between Algeria and France regarding the colonial period… Through such an initiative, Algeria and France can move forward, build stable and peaceful relations, genuine reconciliation and many forms of cooperation,’ it said.
It also added that such moves ‘in no way imply the erasing of a painful history that has left lasting scars on the body of Algeria’.
Boumendjel was arrested during the Algerian War of Independence in 1957, and his death shortly after was covered-up as a suicide.
But, in a meeting with Boumendjel’s grandchildren on Tuesday, President Macron reassessed the death.
‘[He] did not commit suicide. He was tortured and then killed,’ he said.
The North African country gained independence from France in 1962 after a bloody war that lasted seven years.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK