Algerian War 1954-1962 The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian War of Independence or the Algerian Revolution (Berber: Tagrawla Tadzayrit; Arabic: الثورة الجزائرية Al-thawra Al-Jazaairiyya) was a war between France and the Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, terrorism, the use of torture by both sides, and counter-terrorism operations. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians supporting a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian Muslim counterparts.[3] Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge (Red All Saints Day), the conflict shook the foundations of the French Fourth Republic (1946–58) and led to its eventual collapse. In 1961, President Charles de Gaulle decided to give up Algeria, although regarded as an integral part of France, after conducting a referendum showing huge support for Algerian independence. The planned withdrawal led to a state crisis, to various assassination attempts on de Gaulle, and some attempts of military coups. Most of the former were carried out by the Organisation de larmée secrète (OAS), an underground organization formed mainly from French military personnel supporting a French Algeria, which committed a large number of bombings and murders in both Algeria and the homeland to stop the planned independence. Upon independence, in 1962, 900,000 European-Algerians (Pieds-noirs) fled to France, in fear of the FLNs revenge, within a few months. The government was totally unprepared for the vast number of refugees, causing turmoil in France. The majority of Algerian Muslims who had worked for the French were left behind, even though a ″bloodbath″ had been forecast upon French withdrawal. In particular the Harkis, having served as auxiliaries with the French army, were regarded as traitors by the FLN. Between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and family members, disarmed by French officers before the latter left, were murdered by the FLN or lynch-mobs, often after being abducted and tortured. About 91,000 managed to flee to France, some with help from their French officers acting against orders, and today form a significant part of the Algerian-French population. The Algerian War has long been treated as a taboo by French authorities; it was not until 1999 that the national assembly passed a law officially allowing the use of the term guerre dAlgérie (Algerian War) instead of a number of previous euphemistic paraphrases.[4] Today, the conflict is widely regarded as a prototype of a modern asymmetrical war with regular military fighting informal insurgents recruited from the civilian population. The unconventional, often illegal and human-rights-violating counter-insurgency measures applied by the French military against the FLN, namely torture, forced disappearances and illegal executions, were widely regarded as militarily successful, but morally and politically weakening for the French position. Similar measures were later employed in a number of conflicts, especially during the 1970s and 1980s era of right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America battling and often killing any potential opposition in what became known under the Argentinian term Dirty War (Guerra Sucia). According to a number of sources, this happened with the official assistance of French military advisors and also exiled OAS-members. Early during the occupation of Iraq, the Directorate for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict of the Pentagon used the famous 1966 semi-documentary movie The Battle of Algiers as a show case for successfully defeating an insurgency and yet losing the war of ideas
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 13:05:59 +0000
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