France opens Algerian war investigation archives ahead of schedule
The Algerian War, with hundreds of thousands of deaths, was long considered a taboo subject in France
Nearly 60 years after the end of the bloody Algerian war, France wants to open archives on police and gendarmerie investigations related to the fight for independence.
"It takes courage to face the historical truth," Roselyne Bachelot, the minister in charge of archives, told BFM TV on Friday.
A national narrative is not built on lies, therefore she had taken the decision to grant access to the investigation documents 15 years earlier than planned.
In the Algerian War, Algerian independence fighters fought between 1954 and 1962 against the French colonial power, which had ruled the country since 1830 and brutally suppressed the liberation struggle.
The Algerian War, with hundreds of thousands of deaths, was long considered a taboo subject in France.
Reconciliation
French President Emmanuel Macron has recently made efforts to promote reconciliation.
In March, he had access to secret archives on the war facilitated. At the time, he said no crime or atrocity committed by anyone during the Algerian war could be excused or concealed.
Bachelot replied to a question about what would happen if the investigative archives confirmed torture by the French army that it was in France's interest to own up to it.