AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring French colonization a crime, demanding an apology and reparations. The law asserts France’s “legal responsibility” for its colonial past and the tragedies it caused, citing mass killings and deportations during its 1830-1962 rule. Algeria claims 1.5 million died in the independence war, while French historians estimate 500,000 total deaths. While largely symbolic, the move reflects a major diplomatic crisis between the countries. Although President Macron previously acknowledged colonization as a “crime against humanity,” he has not apologized. The Algerian law states that compensation for “material and moral damages” is an “inalienable right.”
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
Algeria’s parliament has unanimously approved a law declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime and demanded an apology and reparations.
Lawmakers, standing in the chamber wearing scarves in the colours of the national flag, chanted “long live Algeria” on Wednesday 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 two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisis and analysts say that while Algeria’s move is largely symbolic, it is still politically significant.
Lawmakers, wearing scarves in the colours of the national flag, chanted ‘long live Algeria’ as they applauded the passage of the bill. Photograph: Fateh Guidoum/AP
It states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people”.
France’s rule over Algeria from 1830 until 1962 wasa period marked by mass killings and large-scale deportations, all the way up to the bloody war of independence from 1954 to 1962.
Algeria says the war killed 1.5 million people, while French historians put the death toll at 500,000 in total, 400,000 of them Algerian.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has previously acknowledged the colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has stopped short of offering an apology.
