[Marxism] ALGERIA: "Sarkozy must apologize" [for colonization of Algeria]

[Sukant Chandan]

"Sarkozy must apologize"

On July 11, the Palestinian-owned Al Quds Al Arabi daily carried the
following opinion piece by Chief Editor Abdel-Beri Atwan:

"French President Nicholas Sarkozy refused to extend an official
apology to the Algerian people for the colonization which lasted more
than 130 years and claimed the lives of over one million Algerian
martyrs. In a press conference he held in the Algerian capital, he
settled for calling for forgetting the past and looking toward the
future. It is shameful and yet expected for the French president to
refuse to apologize. However, it is humiliating for Algerian President
Abdulaziz Bouteflika to accept this rejection and the justifications
which accompanied it.

"This acceptance is humiliating and constitutes an odd setback from a
man who has a history of fighting in the ranks of the Algerian
revolution alongside great men who set an example of sacrifice and
national pride. President Bouteflika was the one who stated that the
French president should make that official apology for the tragic
colonial past, in exchange for establishing good relations with France
on the political, economic and security levels. President Sarkozy must
have sensed the inclination of the Algerian president to recant this
condition, after President Bouteflika officially invited him to visit
Algeria again in November.

"Had it been otherwise, the press conference would've been different
and the official invitation wouldn't have been announced. It is hard
for us to understand why the West won't apologize for the crimes it
committed against our countries and people. Yet, we meet it with open
arms and receive its visiting leaders in our airports with warmth.
Europe never hesitated to apologize to the Jews for the Holocaust…
This apology was even accompanied by the establishment of a state for
them in Palestine at the expense of a Muslim Arab people. It supplied
this state with arms and nuclear facilities and supported it in all
its wars against the Arabs and in the occupation of their lands…

"We are not against apologizing to the Jews. All those who committed
crimes against others should apologize and be punished. However, what
we oppose is the fact that there were no apologies addressed to us as
Arabs and Muslims for the crimes that have been and still are being
perpetrated against us… The crimes perpetrated by colonialism against
us were much greater than the ones perpetrated against the Jews. The
French colonialism remained in Algeria for almost a century and half,
during which the country's wealth was pillaged, hundreds of thousands
of settlers were settled on its land and a wide faction of the
Algerian people were turned into servants, farmers and workers in its
wine factories.

"France played a key role in the establishment of the state of Israel
and it offered it a nuclear reactor which has so far produced over 300
nuclear heads. It has thus turned it into a regional superpower... Why
wouldn't Sarkozy, the son of an immigrant whose family suffered under
the Nazi colonialism, have some courage and announce his apology from
the heart of the Algerian capital for all the things the French
colonialists did against a poor people who committed no crime against
France and its people?

"Had Sarkozy done that, he would've proved he was truly a statesman
and would've found hundred of thousands of Algerian yelling his name
not only inside Algeria but also in France where at least three
million of them are living. France needs Algeria more than the latter
needs France. The terrorist danger threatening Europe is coming from
the opposite shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The non-cooperation of
the Maghreb states with France and the other European countries will
destabilize the entire European continent and turn its cities and
subways into a bloody war arena. Algeria possesses gas, oil, minerals
and cheap labor.

"These strategic economic elements are not present in France and most
of the other European states. It would be sufficient for the states of
the Maghreb to overlook the illicit immigration boats coming from the
Dark Continent and the warehouses of poverty and deprivation in it, to
turn the lives of the Europeans into a living hell. Our problem as
Arabs and Muslims is that our leadership is weak and is submissive
before the West. Had our nation been strong… Sarkozy among others
wouldn't have hesitated to apologize to us…

"We hope that President Bouteflika will recant his recantation of the
apology condition and link Sarkozy's upcoming official visit to a
blunt and clear apology to the Algerian people and all the French
populations who have suffered and still are suffering from the
previous French colonization, policies and practices."

- Al Quds Al Arabi, United Kingdom

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