The main recommendation of the Stora report on colonization and the Algerian war (1954-62) is the constitution in France of a “Memory and Truth” commission which will be “responsible for stimulating joint initiatives between France and Algeria on the questions of memories “.
It “could be made up of different personalities engaged in Franco-Algerian dialogue”, according to the report submitted on Wednesday by French historian Benjamin Stora to President Emmanuel Macron. Here are some of the proposals that this commission could suggest.
First, the memorial work should, according to this commission, go through the continuation of commemorations on the various symbolic dates of the conflict: the Evian agreement on March 19, 1962, tribute to the harkis, these auxiliaries of the French army, and repression of Algerian workers. in France on October 17, 1961.
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Then, the restitution to Algeria of the sword of Emir Abdelkader, hero of the resistance to French colonization in the 19th century, as well as the recognition by France of the assassination of the lawyer and political activist Ali Boumendjel. , during the Battle of Algiers in 1957, recognized by the French officer Paul Aussaresses in his memoirs. The entry into the Pantheon of lawyer Gisèle Halimi, a figure of opposition to the Algerian war, is also advanced.
The Museum of the History of France and Algeria reactivated?
The commission could also propose the publication of a “guide of the disappeared Algerians and Europeans during the conflict, work on French nuclear tests in the Sahara and their consequences, as well as those of the laying of anti-personnel mines during the war.
Among other possibilities, the report suggests facilitating the movement of harkis and their children between France and Algeria, and encouraging the preservation of European cemeteries in Algeria, as well as Jewish cemeteries and the graves of dead Muslim Algerian soldiers. for France during the Algerian war. The idea is also put forward of erecting “places of memory” on four internment camps for Algerians in France.
Benjamin Stora also evokes the track of the Museum of the history of France and Algeria, planned in Montpellier (South) and abandoned in 2014. In the same vein, the historian, via his commission recommendation, proposes to move forward on the issue of archives, with the objectives of transferring certain archives from France to Algeria, and on the other hand to allow researchers from both countries access to French and Algerian archives, with a process faster declassification of secret documents.
Finally, this commission could ask to give a greater place to the history of France in Algeria in school curricula and to facilitate university work on memorial subjects between the two countries (facilitation of visas, access to archives, housing, etc.). The historian also proposes to create a Franco-Algerian commission on the future of the cannon “Baba Merzoug”, also called “La Consulaire”, which was deployed to protect the port of Algiers in 1830, captured by France and currently installed in the port of Brest (West).
