ARABIAN TIMES NEWS NETWORK
A fresh French provocation against Algeria and its people has emerged amid unprecedented diplomatic tensions between the two nations, this time through the sensitive issue of the Harkis. Thirteen members of the French National Assembly have submitted a draft law, dated April 17, 2025, aiming to reopen the wounds of Algeria’s collective memory by broadly recognising the Harkis Algerians who collaborated with French colonial forces and awarding them and their descendants substantial financial compensation.
According to the draft, Paris plans to reassess the financial reparations granted to Harkis and their families who lived in internment camps between March 20, 1962, and December 31, 1975. Article 1 entitles each Harki or their child who resided in these camps to recalculated compensation based on their duration of stay. Article 2 proposes amending previous laws to create a new national committee responsible for determining individual compensations, taking into account poor living conditions, arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and inadequate access to healthcare.
Significantly, Article 3 calls for including three Harki representatives within this committee a move that grants collaborators with colonialism unprecedented influence within French administrative structures. Article 4 mandates that all compensation claims be processed within six months, requiring the recruitment of 100 new employees to manage the estimated 14,000 pending files.
Moreover, Article 5 suggests forming a supervisory committee to oversee the compensation fund’s financial management, while Article 6 proposes financing the fund through a new tax on tobacco sales. Beyond financial redress, the draft dangerously seeks to reestablish “full citizenship” for the Harkis, who lost their French nationality after Algeria’s independence. By framing their loss of nationality as a “political deprivation,” the proposal demands moral recognition a move likely to deepen the historical and emotional rift between Algeria and France.
