This is a major new step in relations between France and Algeria. According to a decree published in the Official Journal, to Sunday, France will further ease access to its archives on the Algerian war, by authorizing the consultation of files involving minors. Already in December 2021, France had opened, fifteen years ahead of the legal deadline, its judicial archives related to the war for the period between November 1, 1954 and December 31, 1966.
But in practice, access to these documents remained “still just as difficult” for families and researchers, had regretted in a grandstand in The world historian Marc André in November 2022. One of the main obstacles was the exclusion of cases involving minors – those under 21, due to the legislation at the time – still subject to the 100-year classification period. Because of this limitation, coupled with several others, “the majority of files are closed”, noted the historian.
“Sufficiently minor to have his file subtracted”
“This bureaucratic management ignores the reality of a war waged by young people. This is true both in Algerian immigration to France and in the maquis, the urban networks and the prisons where the separatists, their supporters, the refractory, the conscripts were for many of them around twenty years old when they joined. , he explains again.
And Marc André to be indignant: “Sufficiently major at the time to have his head cut off, he is now sufficiently minor to see his file subtracted from the general exemption”.
Files still classified
The new decree, published on Sunday and dated August 25, 2023, removes the exclusion of consultation for files involving a minor. On the other hand, those whose communication “infringes the privacy of people’s sexual life” or “the security of named or easily identifiable persons involved in intelligence activities” remain classified. Which, underlined Marc André, also closes many files.
This new relaxation is part of the policy of appeasement decided by Emmanuel Macron during his first five-year term, after the recommendations of the report by Benjamin Stora on the memorial conflict between Algeria and France over the colonial past. But the relationship between France and Algeria remains difficult and marked by misunderstandings and things left unsaid.