The national day of tribute to the Harkis: so that their sacrifice is never forgotten again

Wednesday September 25, Lannemezan, Place de la République. It’s 11:30 a.m. and the ceremony is about to begin. “Officials”, elected officials and representatives of the gendarmerie, police and veterans’ organizations, already form the ranks. Among these personalities, we note the active presence of Bernard Plano, mayor of Lannemezan, and that of his deputies, that of Pierre Soulé-Artozoul, Bernard Estrampes, Marc Portes, and Maurice Adoue.

A few meters away, the traditional Wednesday market takes place in serenity. Two parallel times. A lady approaches and asks why there is this gathering. National Day of Tribute to the Harkis? Glimmer of astonishment…

Every country that has experienced war also knows its share of shame. For years, the press and history textbooks have relegated this part to oblivion: that of the fate to which France in the 1960s abandoned Harkis and other members of local military and paramilitary organizations who had sided with it during the war. from Algeria. No wonder memories are lacking.

A tragic destiny

The Harkis made up, with other auxiliary formations such as Mobile Security Groups, Specialized Administrative Sections, or Self-Defense Groups, all of the local auxiliary forces raised by the French army during this conflict. Despite the Evian Accords of 1962 which put an end to it and defined not only the conditions of Algeria’s independence, but also the principles of non-retaliation which were to commit the Algerian provisional government not to resort to any sanctions against the auxiliaries. , the latter had to suffer, alongside certain elected officials put in place by the ALN, the most atrocious and barbaric persecutions possible, from the FLN and a section of the Algerian people.

Contempt or political calculation? Still, General de Gaulle, having never taken seriously the commitment they had demonstrated, nor their desire for citizenship, very few of them will be able, despite the efforts of a few high-ranking officers, to escape the reprisals and reach the mainland with their families (nearly 60,000 French Muslims estimated in total).

Then it will be, for this population victim of discrimination, seen as stateless, life in transit and reclassification camps, or in logging hamlets, in precarious and almost prison conditions, sometimes for several years, before chaotic reintegration and sometimes drama within French society.

In 2001, Jacques Chirac will begin an official request for forgiveness, and the recognition of the nation for the sacrifice of the Harkis. A nation which had chosen reason of state. The damage is done. In the hearts of some, the words ring true, like reparation; in others, they only taste like a wound that cannot heal.