Alban Liechti, the “soldier of refusal” of the Algerian war, died at the age of 89

He was the first French conscript to publicly refuse to take up arms during the Algerian War of Independence. His funeral will be held on Wednesday in Trappes.

He was the first to say “no” to the Algerian War, as a French conscript. Alban Liechti, the first to refuse to shoot Algerians, has just died at the age of 89. His funeral will take place on Wednesday, September 4 in Trappes, in the Yvelines. This communist activist, nicknamed the “soldier of refusal”, was a pioneer in this war, before finding imitators.

He took up the pen in 1956 during his compulsory military service, in Versailles. His regiment was about to be sent to Algiers so he wrote his refusal to take up arms to President René Coty. “The war that our leaders are waging against the Algerian people is not a defensive war. In this war, it is the Algerians who are defending their women, their families, peace and justice. It is the friendship between French and Algerians that I want to defend.”he had written.

Sent to Algeria in spite of everything, the communist activist tries to convince the other young conscripts. “I said everything I thought about the Algerian war, that we had no place there and that methods like torture were used. I was against all that. I was well regarded by all the guys, except the officers.”recalled Alban Liechti in 2021 on France Culture.

Alban Liechti does not know the risks he is running, since he is the first. It will be prison for the next four years. Incarcerated by the French army in Tizi Ouzou, then in Algiers, he is then transferred again several times.

He was slow to be supported by his party, the PCF, but his actions eventually gained followers, says historian Tramor Quemeneur, a specialist in Algeria: “About a year after his refusal, a campaign began, led by the Secours Populaire Français, which led to about forty young communists refusing to participate in the Algerian war. This led to the question of refusing war, of disobedience in the Algerian war, being raised publicly. From this point of view, his career is important.”.

“At one point, we reached the point where there was increasingly strong opposition within French society.”

Tramor Quemeneur, historian

to franceinfo

Released from his military obligations ten days before the Evian Accords, he returned to being a gardener in Trappes and remained deprived of his right to vote until 1966, and the amnesty law. “He’s a hero! For a long time, he was considered more of a traitor.”says his son, Vincent Liechti. He also mentions a lack of recognition: “When he died, we received a message from the President of the Algerian Republic but not from the French President, so the recognition is not yet fully and completely complete.”Alban Liechti’s funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon at the Trappes cemetery.