Algeria passes law declaring French colonization a crime
Vote comes as the two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisisv
Vote comes as the two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisisv
ALGIERS (AFP) — Algeria’s parliament unanimously approved on Wednesday a law declaring France’s colonization of the country a crime, demanding an apology and reparations in a move Paris condemned as “hostile.”
Standing in the chamber, lawmakers wearing scarves in the colors of the national flag chanted “long live Algeria” as they applauded the passage of the bill, which states that France holds “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused.”
The vote comes as the two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisis, and while the move is largely symbolic, it is still politically significant, an analyst said.
Parliament speaker Brahim Boughali told the APS state news agency before the vote that it would send “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable.”
The legislation lists the “crimes of French colonization,” including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture,” and the “systematic plundering of resources.”
It states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonization is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people.”
A French foreign ministry spokesperson condemned the law’s passing as counterproductive to “the desire to resume Franco-Algerian dialogue and to calm discussions on historical issues.”
The official said Paris was “not in the business of commenting on Algerian domestic politics,” but pointed to “the work undertaken” by French President Emmanuel Macron to establish a commission of historians to study the period of colonial rule.
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