Algerian generals slam historic reconciliation with France

A brutal setback for French President Emmanuel Macron and his campaign for a common Franco-Algerian reading of the 132 years of occupation and colonisation, and above all the eight years of the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962). Macron's initiative has been flatly rejected by the Algerian generals, led by their chief of staff, General Said Chengriha, despite the first decisive steps taken by the current occupant of the Elysée Palace: the opening of secret archives to historians, and the acknowledgement that the mathematician and one of the leaders of the Algerian Resistance, Ali Boumendjel, had been tortured to death by French troops. 

Since the historian Benjamin Stora gave Macron his catalogue of recommendations for healing the wounds of that conflict, the Algerian reaction, far from accepting the hand extended towards memorial reconciliation, has been distinguished by a redoubling of accusations towards the former metropolis. The military leadership is thus particularly hostile to the new generations freeing themselves from the heavy burden of resentment. 

It so happens that General Chengriha is the first head of the Algerian military leadership who did not fight in that war, which would indicate that he has firmly taken the baton from his predecessor and Algeria's real strongman, General Gaid Salah, who forced President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign before he himself suffered a fatal cardio-respiratory arrest.

Salah's move was aimed at halting the increasingly widespread and numerous protests of the Hirak movement, which expressed the weariness with the immobility of a regime under the tutelage of the military since independence, first through the FLN (National Liberation Front) until 1989, then by authorising the emergence of new parties, such as the Islamic radicals who came close to establishing an Islamic republic in the country, but who provoked a long and protracted civil war lasting eight years and half a million dead.

Less strident than Gaid Salah, the regime's new strongman seems to fully agree with the core of Algerian military thinking: the armed forces, the main architects of the victory over France, are legitimised to guarantee the unity and stability of the country, a mission they consider inalienable and, apparently, eternal. 

To carry out this mission, Chengriha believes that the army must be and behave as a seamless body. Thus, earlier this year, he secured the acquittal of Generals Mohamed Lamine Mediene, the feared "Tawfiq" and Osman Tartaq, who had been in charge of the powerful secret services, and who had been sentenced to fifteen years in prison shortly after President Bouteflika's eviction. 

This is a strong message: the army remains firm and the powers of the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, will be subject to the approval of the military leadership. As an example, the tenant of the Mouradia Palace, who had announced in February a wide-ranging government reshuffle, has been unable to change either the prime minister or the holders of the most controversial portfolios.

At the same time, General Chengriha has raised the bar in his accusations against France, blaming it, along with other foreign powers, for the new explosion of demonstrations in Hirak. At the same time, the memory of the war for independence is revived, emphasising both the actions of that "glorious revolution" and the supposed number of martyrs (chouada) that struggle cost. 

The chief of the General Staff only increases the number of Algerian victims every time he has occasion to recall it, and already speaks openly of "millions", in an overbidding in which he has even taken advantage of the revelation made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his Algerian colleague, Abdelmajid Tebboune, had informed him that "France massacred more than five million Algerians" in the 132 years of the colonial period. French historians put the number of indigenous victims at around 250,000, of whom no fewer than 50,000 were killed by the FLN itself. 

Whether this is Tebboune's sincere thinking or whether it was imposed on him by Chengriha, the Algerian president made his statement on March 22 through Abdelmajid Chikhi, his advisor for National Memory. According to his solemn declaration, the Stora report is nothing more than a Franco-French report, so that "officially, it is as if this report does not exist" [for the Algerian government]. 

It seems, therefore, that reconciliation through a shared vision of history, however serious it may be, will have to wait a while. In the meantime, hatred will continue to be stoked by magnifying grievances. Perhaps because the Algerian army does not want to lose the historical-ideological basis on which its immense power rests.