Sétif massacre

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Map of Algeria showing Sétif province

The Sétif massacre was an attack on Algerian protesters by French soldiers on May 8, 1945, the same day that Germany surrendered in World War II. The massacre killed between 20,000 to 45,000 people, and is one of the important dates in the relations between France, which had colonized Algeria since 1830, and Algeria, which gained independence with the March 1962 Evian Accords.

[edit] Context

The anti-colonialist movement had started organizing itself before World War II, under Messali Hadj and Ferhat Abbas. Anti-French sentiment had been building across Algeria for months, leading to thousand-person protests in such cities as Mostaganem in the previous weeks. With the end of World War II, 15,000 protesters took to the streets of Sétif, a town in northern Algeria, to press new demands for independence on the colonial government.

The French Army responded with overwhelming force. At around 9 am on May 8, a crowd chanting "Vive l'indépendance!" marched on the French military forces, mainly composed of colonial forces, after the same forces had shot at the flag-carriers. French commander General Duval gave the order to fire on the largely unarmed crowds, using machine guns, killing thousands. Saal Bouzid, a young boy carrying the Algerian flag, was among the first to fall, making him an instant martyr to the resistance movement.

The French troops moved swiftly to contain the protests, attacking the neighborhoods and surrounding villages of both Sétif and nearby Guelma with artillery and air force bombers. Arbitrary murder and rape by the French forces ensued. The attacks continued until the formal surrender of the tribes on May 22. The ultimate death toll remains contentious, with Algeria claiming more than 45,000 dead, while initial French estimates claimed only 1,500 casualties — France later revised its estimate up to 20,000 dead. In a series of reprisal assassinations following the violence, 104 Europeans were massacred, of whom more than half were women or children.

In February 2005, Hubert Colin de Verdière, France's ambassador to Algeria, formally apologized for the massacre, calling it an "inexcusable tragedy."[1] It was the most explicit comments by the French state on the massacre. [2]

President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika has called the Sétif massacre the beginning of a "genocide" perpetrated during the Algerian War by the French occupation forces. This accusation of a "genocide" has been swiftly denounced by the French state and various French historians, although the perpetral of various massacres, the use of torture and others human rights abuses are not questionned. All in all, the Algerian War and its consequences remains an important memory stake in both countries.