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Bashibozuk
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Topic: France to Apoligize Posted: 20-May-2006 at 11:51 |
Algeria Says France Must Apologise for 'Barbarian Massacres' and 'Genocide' |
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Friday , 19 May 2006
ALGIERS - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika last week renewed his call for France to officially apologise to Algerians for its "barbarian massacres" and 'genocide' if Paris wanted to improve ties with its former colony.
Bouteflika's remarks were the latest in a war of words that broke out last month when the Algerian leader said France's 132-year colonial-rule amounted to a "genocide of Algerian identity".
France is trying to retain influence in Africa's second largest country, where the United States is bolstering oil and trade ties.
"It is today our duty towards the Algerian people and the martyrs to demand official apology from a nation whose motto of revolution was freedom, equality, fraternity," Bouteflika said in a speech read out on his behalf by Minister for Veterans Affairs Mohamed Cherif Abbas.
Bouteflika earlier urged Paris to acknowledge a role in the massacres of 45,000 Algerians who took to the streets to demand independence from France as Europe celebrated victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The later 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence cost the lives of 1.5 million Algerians, according to the Algiers government.
"The massacres of May 8, 1945, were of a barbarity and a cruelty never equalled in both old and modern Algerian history. They were a savagery that no one could not disavow," he added in Thursday's address.
The speech in the western town of Mostaganem was to mark the National Student Day and pay tribute to students who left schools in 1956 and took up arms during the war of independence.
On April 27, French Minister for Europe Catherine Colonna called for an end to an "unhelpful" war of words between the two nations, saying relations should be built on trust.
MUTUAL RESPECT
Last month the two countries bickered over the protocol of a mid-April health check Bouteflika had in the French capital.
French right-wingers complained France should not have permitted Bouteflika to visit Paris, because just days earlier in a speech in the eastern town of Constantine he said French colonialism amounted to a genocide of Algerian identity.
Those comments came a few days after a visit to Algiers by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to negotiate a friendship treaty aimed at improving ties.
They were due to sign the accord, similar to the 1963 Franco-German reconciliation treaty, at the end of last year to set aside tensions born out of 132 years of French occupation.
But France's National Assembly approved in February 2005 a law referring to the "positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa", a move seen by Algiers as a hurdle on the way to normalisation.
French President Jacques Chirac repealed the law but that step did not defuse the row.
ALGERIAN GENOCIDE
Between 350,000 and 1.5 million Algerians died during the Algerian War of Independence. Algerians argue that the massacres should be named as genocide and France must apologise to the Algerians. However the French do not accept the claims. Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika says that French colonization of his country Algeria was a form of genocide. In memoirs, some French officers have described torture of Algerians during the war. Edouard Sablier, for instance, one of the soldiers who took part in the repression, later described the situation: Everywhere in the towns there were camps surrounded by barbed wire containing hundreds of suspects who had been arrested Often, when we set out to inspect an isolated hamlet in the mountains, I heard people say, We should punish them by taking away their crops. A paper called Oh Partisans, published by the French Trotskyists, described Stif as an Algerian Oradour. Oradour was a French town where the Nazi occupiers had murdered over 600 people, including children.
jtw, news agencies 19 May 2006
Edited by Bashibozuk - 20-May-2006 at 11:52
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Garibim, namima Kerem diyorlar,
Asli'mi el almis, harem diyorlar.
Hastayim, derdime verem diyorlar,
Marasli Seyhoglu Satilmis'im ben.
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Zagros
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 11:58 |
Yes, it certainly is funny that countries such as this who, not 40 years ago, commited such heinous crimes (and in some cases continue to do so) and who still support some of the worst regimes in the world have the audacity to preach to others about human rights, minority rights and justice simply because they do not walk the colonialist's line.
The sooner they are pulled off their colonialist high horse the better a place the world will be.
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Mila
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 12:00 |
It's very sad that people - whether the Armenians, Algerians, Bosnians,
Jews, even Germans - have to force other nations to offer an apology
for their roll in whatever term they use to describe this evil.
I would love to see a full compilation of all massacres that occured in
Europe, or were carried out by Europeans, in the 5 years following the
end of WWII - 1945-50. That list would be long enough to scare anyone I
think. In the Balkans alone we're talking about tens of thousands of
women executed for so much as dancing with Italian or German soldiers.
We're talking about tens of thousands of Nazi sympathizers, or worse,
full supporters.
Add it all up, everywhere - including Palestine/Israel... it would be a very scary list to read.
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Anujkhamar
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 14:03 |
If France apoligises it's open season on all ex-colonists.
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Spartakus
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 14:47 |
It's very sad that people - whether the Armenians, Algerians, Bosnians, Jews, even Germans...
....and the Hellens.
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996)
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bg_turk
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 15:40 |
[QUOTE=Spartakus] It's very sad that people - whether the Armenians, Algerians, Bosnians, Jews, even Germans...
....and the Hellens. [/QUOTE
... and the Turks.
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akritas
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 16:10 |
Originally posted by bg_turk
[QUOTE=Spartakus]It's very sad that people - whether the Armenians, Algerians, Bosnians, Jews, even Germans...
....and the Hellens. [/QUOTE
... and the Turks. |
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Spartakus
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 17:20 |
... and the Turks.
..and the Hellens.
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996)
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Anujkhamar
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Posted: 20-May-2006 at 18:39 |
Oh come on, every group of people in the world has been massacarred at one point in history (apart from possibly Mormons, i can't find any of their massacres anywhere).
Hindus by the muslims Sikhs by the muslims Indians by the British Muslims by the Christians Christians by the muslims the aboriginese by the British Central and South Americans by the Spanish the Jews by everyone (or so they would have you believe)
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Richard XIII
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 02:35 |
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"I want to know God's thoughts...
...the rest are details."
Albert Einstein
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Guests
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 03:23 |
genocide of Algerian identity- Now have a look at France and their Identity, Eurabia
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Guests
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 03:30 |
Originally posted by Anujkhamar
If France apoligises it's open season on all ex-colonists. |
Yep your right there everyone will want $$$$$MONEY$$$$$ from the evil european nations.
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Leonidas
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 05:01 |
to be honest im not into apologies, recognition is all that is needed in these circumstances for me. while there is a long list of past crimes that shouldnt be a reason for many nations, especailly "ex empires " to recognise their crimes.
Power even former power always comes at a cost from other nations or people. By blood, enslavement or just kelptomainic behavoir.
Edited by Leonidas - 22-May-2006 at 05:02
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Leonidas
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 05:40 |
Originally posted by machine
genocide of Algerian identity- Now have a look at France and their Identity, Eurabia |
here we go, someone that was at cronulla
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Qin Dynasty
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 10:39 |
Originally posted by machine
[QUOTE=Anujkhamar]If France apoligises it's open season on all ex-colonists. |
Yep your right there everyone will want $$$$$MONEY$$$$$ from the evil european nations.
[QUOTE=Anujkhamar][QUOTE=machine]
Edited by Qin Dynasty - 22-May-2006 at 10:40
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Anujkhamar
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Posted: 22-May-2006 at 12:05 |
Apologies are worthless, however gifts are always welcome
*cough* Kohi-noor *cough*
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