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Algeria’s parliament has unanimously approved a piece of legislation affirming France’s colonisation of the country a criminal act and demanded an official apology and reparations.

Legislators, gathered in parliament wearing scarves in the colors of the national flag, chanted “long live Algeria” on the session day as they celebrated the passage of the legislation, which states that France holds “accountability for its history of colonisation in Algeria and the tragedies it caused”.

A Significant Crisis and a Symbolic Move

The both nations are embroiled in a significant diplomatic crisis and analysts note that while Algeria’s action is largely gestural, it is still politically significant.

“an unambiguous signal, both internally and internationally, that Algeria’s national memory is not erasable nor negotiable.”

The legislation enumerates the “atrocities of colonial rule”, which include nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “torture” and the “systematic plundering of national wealth”.

Call for Reparations

It states that “complete and just compensation for all physical and psychological harms caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the state and people”.

France’s rule over Algeria from the 19th century until independence was a era characterized by mass killings and large-scale deportations, culminating in the bloody independence war from the mid-1950s to 1962.

• Algerian officials says the conflict killed one and a half million people.
• French historians put the death toll at half a million in all, four hundred thousand of them Algerian.

Official Reaction and Academic Perspective

The head of state, Emmanuel Macron, has in the past recognized the colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has declined to offer an official apology.

Questioned recently about the parliamentary decision, a French foreign ministry representative said he would not discuss “internal political matters taking place in foreign countries”.

Hosni Kitouni in colonial history, said that “legally, this law has little international force and therefore is not binding for France”. However, “its diplomatic and emblematic significance is important: it marks a break in the ties with France in terms of memory,” he added.