Algiers — President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune affirmed that the Algerians are waiting for a “total recognition of all crimes” perpetrated by the colonial France, pointing out that the fact of recognizing its crimes is a form of repentance.
He cited the “beginning of the colonization, with the extermination, for 40 years, of entire tribes, and decimation of whole villages.”
There were then the period of spoliation, where the land was confiscated from the Algerians to be distributed to the Europeans.”
He also cited “the horrors of 8 May 1945 with 45,000 deaths and finally the liberation war when the Algerians took up arms to free their country.”
President Tebboune said that “all this doesn’t concern the generation of President Macron, and doesn’t also concern some French intellectuals, who are irreproachable,” underlining that “recognizing these facts is important.”
“We want a peaceful and recognized memory,” he stressed, insisting on the fact that “It is the colonial France that we are judging and not Voltaire’s France or the enlightenment France.”
In his reply to a question on his insistence on the recognition rather that repentance, President Tebooune said “recognition is a form of repentance.”