This is an ad that fits in the policy of memorial reconciliation initiated by Emmanuel Macron. The Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, announced, Friday, December 10, the next opening of the archives on “judicial inquiries” of the Algerian War (1954-1962), nearly sixty years after independence, and when the Franco-Algerian relationship has been in crisis for months. “I am opening the archives fifteen years in advance on the judicial investigations of the gendarmerie and the police which relate to the Algerian war”, she said on BFMTV.
“I want this question – which is disturbing, irritating, where there are falsifiers of history at work – to be able to face it. You cannot build a national novel on a lie”, argued the minister on the continuous news channel. According to Release, “The decision announced by the Minister of Culture must be implemented by means of a decree, and these archives could therefore be opened as early as next year.” Why is this declassification of archives so long awaited? Response elements.
Because there is a historical stake
If the history of the Algerian war is largely known, there are many gray areas. One example among others: that of the missing. “Tens of thousands of people disappeared during the Algerian war. Many families do not know under what conditions their loved one was executed or buried”, explain to West France Pierre Mansat, president of the Josette and Maurice Audin Association, which campaigns for the recognition of colonial crimes. “There is a lot to uncover on this front and records are essential. ”
Linda Amiri, lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Guyana, assures us, again with the regional daily, that there is also a lot to learn about “‘the ratonnades’ in Algeria which were numerous” but also “the various and varied places of confinement, unofficial and official” and on “the ‘Red Hand'”, a secret French organization that carried out attacks in Europe and North Africa in the 1950s.
Will the declassification of the archives make it possible to know more about all these aspects? Nobody knows. But, according to Françoise Banat-Berger, head of the interministerial service of the archives of France, interviewed by Release, “these are files linked to Algerian nationalists, to supporters of French Algeria, to the Organization of the Secret Army (OAS). They concern acts committed in Algeria and in mainland France. ” According to the daily, “vsThis general exemption will concern cases which have been the subject of a police investigation and brought before the courts. Documents attached to departmental and national archives, the Quai d’Orsay, the Armies or the Paris Police Prefecture can thus be consulted.“
Because there is an issue of reconciling memories
Knowledge of the facts, therefore the possible rewriting of history will also make it possible to reconcile memories. “It is falsification which brings about all the wanderings, all the troubles and all the hatred. From the moment the facts are on the table, where they are recognized, where they are analyzed, we can build another story, a reconciliation”, justified Roselyne Bachelot on BFMTV.
“Memory can betray while the facts are irrefutable”, assured Franceinfo political scientist Kader Abderrahim, after Emmanuel Macron’s decision announced last March to facilitate access to archives classified over 50 years, especially those on the Algerian war. “They allow us to glimpse the construction of a common history which could bring the two countries closer together on this memorial construction and not on this ideological and instrumentalized memorial exploitation. “
“There are many people, especially in Algeria, who continue to make this story the business of a regime that does not have much legitimacy.”
Kader Abderrahim, political scientistto franceinfo
“History is history. It is the human trajectory and it is from this trajectory that we can try to trace perspectives for the future”, had again affirmed the political scientist.
Because there is a diplomatic issue
Will this declaration by the Minister of Culture make it possible to calm relations between Paris and Algiers? It comes in any case two days after the visit to Algiers of the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to try to defuse a crisis of rare gravity between the two countries, underway for several months. “We hope that the dialogue that we are relaunching today can lead to a resumption of political exchanges between our two governments in 2022, beyond the wounds of the past that we must face in the face, beyond the misunderstandings that we are facing. comes back to overtake “, declared the minister to the press after meeting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
In October, Emmanuel Macron had notably triggered the ire of Algiers by accusing, according to comments reported by The world, the system “politico-military” Algerian to maintain a “memorial rent” around the war of independence and France. Algeria then recalled its ambassador to Paris and prohibited the overflight of its territory to French military planes rallying the Sahel.