What happened to the Harkis after the Algerian War



What is a Harki?

A Harki (derived from the Arabic word, ‘haraka; movement’) was an Algerian Muslim who served with the French army during the Algerian War. It has since become a common pejorative both for French of Algerian descent (or sometimes any French Muslim) as well as an Islamist term for Muslim traitors.

How many Harkis served with the French?

Estimates vary greatly. From 70,000 to 236,000 Algerian Muslims served with the French Army between 1956 and 1962. This large discrepancy is probably explained by different counting standards. i.e. smaller number is only harki fighters, and larger estimate is both fighters and their families who were retroactively named ‘Harkis’ by both French and Algerians.

What did they do?

The harkis served in French conventional and paramilitary units in the Algerian War from 1956-1962. Some served in irregular functions as well, such as human intelligence collection.

What happened to the Harkis after the Algerian War?

40 – 90k (including civilians, not just fighters) fled to France. Harkis were not officially given permission to migrate, but some French military officers helped facilitate their migration to France in order to save them from certain reprisals in Algeria. These were interned in 'camps de regroupement' (internment camps) including Camp Joffre, used during World War II as a ‘sorting center’for undesirables during the Holocaust, and other pre-existing facilities before they were allowed to proceed through a process of repatriation. These camps existed in this form until the 1970s. ‘Repatriated French Muslim’ is an official bureaucratic term for these people.

Many others who did not escape suffered deprivation or death at the hands of Algerian nationalists.

How many were killed?

Did not obtain any information about how many may have been killed during military operations against the FLN with the French Army. Between 50k and 150k are thought to have been killed in reprisals and massacres following the Algerian War, such as in the Oran massacre of 1962.

Why were they killed and who killed them?

The harkis killed by Algerian nationalists because they were considered traitors to Algeria by the victorious FLN for serving with the ‘colonialists.’ (‘colonialists’ in semi-quotation marks because France formally annexed Algeria… it was not really a colony)

What about Harkis today?

They exist as a minority in France of approximately 500k. Discrimination (both racial and nationalist in origin) against them are prevalent within France and it was not until the early 21st century that the French government moved to recognize the suffering and sacrifices of French harkis during the war. There is a popular view of Harkis as ‘lazy immigrants’ because approximately 80% of French Algerians in the 18-25 age-group are unemployed.

French Harkis are forbidden by Algeria to visit their parent country.

Compare and Contrast with Sons of Iraq?

The harkis fought for what was essentially a foreign power during its attempts to quell rebellion and maintain rule over Algeria, and suffered reprisals at the hands of Algerian nationalists when the French eventually withdrew. They were not a particular ethnic or religious group, and they served in formally organized units within the French Army and took orders from French officers.

The Sons of Iraq differ from this formula in several ways. They represent a particular ethnic/religious tribal combination (Arab Sunni) whereas the harkis did not. Also, the Sons of Iraq are a manifestation of new Sunni Arab support for the elected Iraqi government, rather than that of a foreign occupying power. While some people (propagandists) may claim that the US plays the same colonialist role in Iraq that France had in Algeria, the simple fact is that the American flag does not fly over the Iraqi capital. Also, the Sons of Iraq are not an integrated part of the American military; they do not serve under and are not beholden to US military officers. Neither do they serve under Iraqi officers, at this point. They did receive payment from the US Treasury previously, however, but are now paid by the Iraqi government.

The Sons of Iraq play a similar role as a paramilitary counterinsurgency force as the Harkis did in Algeria, but they serve the Iraqi national government rather than a foreign interest and identify with a particular ethnic group within Iraq. As such, their eventual fate relies much more upon internal Iraqi politics and ethnic relations than with foreign (read: American) presence and influence.

The SOI relationship with the US is one of mutual aid. The SOI help to break up Sunni terrorist groups (especially AQI) and maintain order in the Sunni Triangle, and the US prevents the new Shi’i majority from persecuting them or driving them from the country. So long as both of these tasks are carried out, and they continue to be recognized and paid by the Iraqi state, the healing of Iraqi society can continue. Should the SOI cease to serve their purpose as security guarantors or should they become targets of minority persecution, they will revert to armed resistance against the central government of Iraq. (though no longer as allies with AQI; too many summary executions, bombings, and terror murders have poisoned that relationship beyond all recovery)



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After the war

In 1962, orders were initially given by the French government of Charles de Gaulle to officials and army officers to prevent the Harkis from following the example of the Pieds-Noirs and seeking refuge in Metropolitan France. However, some officers of the French army disobeyed and tried to assist the Harkis under their command, as well as their families, to escape from Algeria. On the other hand, the OAS far-right terrorist group initiated a campaign of bombings following the Evian Accords, and tried to block the Pieds-Noirs population from leaving the country. About 91,000 Harkis (including family members) were able to find refuge in France. As feared, there were widespread reprisals against those who remained in Algeria. It is estimated that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and their dependents were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria, sometimes in circumstances of extreme cruelty.[3] In "A Savage War Of Peace" Alistair Horne writes: "Hundreds died when put to work clearing the minefields along the Morice Line, or were shot out of hand. Others were tortured atrociously; army veterans were made to dig their own tombs, then swallow their decorations before being killed; they were burned alive, or castrated, or dragged behind trucks, or cut to pieces and their flesh fed to dogs. Many were put to death with their entire families, including young children."

By contrast, regular Muslim troops (who had the option of continuing to serve in the French Army) were only occasionally subject to reprisals. Some leaders of the new Algerian Republic were themselves veterans of the French Army, which had prior to independence provided one of the few avenues for advancement open to the Muslim majority.

The French government of the time, concerned mainly with disengagement from Algeria and the repatriation of the Pieds-Noirs, disregarded or downplayed news of these killings. De Gaulle himself appears to have been indifferent to the plight of the Muslim loyalists, according to Alistair Horne remarking to one of their spokesmen "Eh bien! vous souffrirez" ("Well then - you will suffer"). Nothing had been planned for the Harkis, and the government refused to formally recognize their right to stay in France for some years. They were kept out of sight in "temporary" internment camps surrounded by barbed wire, such as the Joffre Camp in Rivesaltes (outside of Perpignan) and in "chantiers de forestage" -- communities of 30 Harki families built on the outskirts of forests for which the men were responsible for their upkeep. The French government has since enacted various measures to help the Harki community (notably the 1994 Romani law and the 2005 Mekachera law); however, as the Harki community claims, these laws are often too little, too late.

Recently, the French government of Jacques Chirac has acknowledged these former allies and public ceremonies have been held to commemorate their sacrifices, such as the September 25, 2001 Day of National Recognition for the Harkis. There are hundreds of active Harki associations in France working to obtain further recognition for what is still a somewhat neglected and unassimilated refugee minority. For its part, the Algerian government still does not recognize the Harkis as French citizens and has not permitted them to visit their birth places and members of their families left behind in Algeria.



Pieds-Noirs' and Harkis' exodus

Pieds-Noirs (including Sephardi Jews) and Harkis accounted for 13% of the total population of Algeria in 1962. For the sake of clarity, each group's exodus is described separately here, although their fate shared many common elements.

[edit] Pieds-noirs

Pied-noir (literally "black foot") is a term used to name the European-descended population (mostly Catholic) that had been in Algeria for generations; it is sometimes used to include the Sephardi Jewish population as well, which likewise emigrated after 1962. The Europeans had arrived as immigrants from all over the western Mediterranean (particularly France, Spain, and Malta), starting in 1830. The Jews had arrived in several waves, some coming in Roman times while most had arrived as refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, and had largely embraced French citizenship after the décret Crémieux in 1871. In 1959, the pieds-noirs numbered 1,025,000 (85% of European descent, and 15% of Sephardi Jewish descent), and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of Algeria. In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 of them fled or left the country, the first third prior to the referendum, in the most massive relocation of population to Europe since the Second World War. A motto used in the FLN propaganda designating the Pied-noirs community was "Suitcase or coffin" ("La valise ou le cercueil") - an expropriation of a term first coined years earlier by pied-noir "ultras" when rallying the European community to their hardcore line.

The French government claimed not to have anticipated that such a massive number would leave; at the most it said it estimated that perhaps 200–300,000 might choose to go to metropolitan France temporarily. Nothing was planned for their move to France, and many had to sleep in streets or abandoned farms on their arrival. A minority of departing pieds-noirs, including soldiers, destroyed their possessions before departure, applying scorched earth policy in a sign of protestation and as a desperate symbolic try to leave no trace of over a century of European presence, but the vast majority of their goods and houses were left intact and abandoned to Algerians. Scenes of thousands of panicked people camping for weeks on the docks of Algerian harbors waiting for a space on a boat to France were common from April to August 1962. About 100,000 pieds-noirs chose to remain, but most of those gradually left over the 1960s and 1970s, primarily due to residual hostility against them, including machine-gunning of public places in Oran.[27]

[edit] Harkis

The so-called Harkis, from the Algerian-Arabic dialect word harki (soldier), were the Muslim indigenous Algerians (as opposed to European-descended or Sephardi Jews) who fought as auxiliaries on the side of the French army. Some of these were veterans of the Free French Forces who participated in the liberation of France during World War II or in the Indochina War. The term also came to include civilian indigenous Algerians who supported a French Algeria. According to French government figures, there were 236,000 Algerian Muslims serving in the French Army in 1962, either in regular units (Spahis and Tirailleurs) or as irregulars (harkis and moghaznis). Some estimates suggest that, with their families, the indigenous Muslim loyalists may have numbered as many as 1 million, but 400,000 is more commonly cited.

In 1962, around 91,000 Harkis fled or sailed to France, despite French policy against this. Pierre Messmer, minister of the armies and Louis Joxe, minister for Algerian affairs gave orders to this effect. The Harkis were seen as traitors by many Algerians, and many of those who stayed behind suffered severe reprisals after independence. French historians estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and members of their families were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria, often in atrocious circumstances or after torture, a climax being reached at the Oran massacre of 1962. The abandonment of the "Harkis" both in terms of non-recognition of those who died defending a French Algeria and the neglect of those who escaped to France, remains an issue that France has not fully resolved — although the government of Jacques Chirac made efforts to give recognition to the suffering of these former allies.



Letter of the FLN to the Harkis

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First Published: July 14, 1960;

Translated: for by Mitch Abidor;

CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) .

The harkis were Algerians who fought alongside the French in their war against the FLN. Considered traitors, thousands died during the actual war and, according to harki sources, many thousands more were killed when the war ended and they remained behind in the now independent Algeria.

There is no question that the FLN viewed them with especial hatred and disdain. The following was a flyer distributed to harki units.

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Faithful to its tradition, colonialist France spares the blood of its children and, as always, uses foreign blood in its wars against the peoples it wants to maintain under its domination.

The French Federation of the FLN has regularly foiled the various manoeuvres of the French government. It has successfully responded to all of the provocations directed against the Algerian Emigration, whose definitive unity it has realized and cemented.

In the face of the operations of which you are the unknowing executors, we could react using the same methods we have been forced to use in the past in rendering harmless the agents of the enemy; traitors, stool pigeons, etc... The French press would then speak of a “settling of accounts among Algerians,” claiming this proves the division in our ranks and our inability to take our destiny into our own hands.

Responsible for the security of our immigrant compatriots in France, the French Federation of the FLN, while not tolerating any attack on that security, will know how to avoid playing the enemy’s game.

HARKIS! “BLUE-CAPS"!

MEMBERS OF THE “AUXILIARY POLICE FORCE”

We know under what conditions you were either forced or led to enlist.

We know what ruses, pressures, and blackmail you were the objects of on the part of those who deliberately expose you to the risk of falling before the blows of your compatriots.

You should immediately ask yourself the question: WHY THEN WOULD YOU HAVE DIED?

Because you are the victims of the very people who torture and murder your fathers and brothers, brutalize and rape your mothers and sisters, set fire to and bomb your villages — of the very people who carry out a barbaric war against people FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS!

You will thus understand why and how the colonial system makes of you the instruments of its abject politics; why and how the colonial system makes of you pariahs who are banished from their community.

You weren’t born to be the bulldogs of French colonialism.

You can’t deny you origins: your place awaits you among your brothers.

HARKIS!

BLUE CAPS!

Members of the “Auxiliary Police Force”

Colonialism is tottering, it is about to be defeated! It is forced to recognize the patriotic combatants as the responsible interlocutors of Algeria’s destiny.

Tomorrow IT WILL ABANDON YOU, like it abandoned all those it used in Viet Nam, in Tunisia and in Morocco.

Tomorrow you will be worthy of no more consideration than a cheap Glaoui[1] . What will become of you in an Algeria that will, sooner than you think, be returned to its people?

One path alone is laid out before every Algerian: the path of Honor and dignity.

Decide!

JOIN, BEFORE IT’s TOO LATE, THE RANKS OF THE ALGERIAN REVOLUTION!

Paris, July 14, 1960



Le silence des harkis

by Laurent Muller

Paris: L'Harmattan, 1999. 240 pp

Reviewed by Daniel Pipes

Middle East Quarterly

March 2000

THIS IS A REVIEW OF A FRENCH LANGUAGE BOOK.

During the last years of French rule in Algeria, between 1956 and 1962 to be precise, the army recruited 70,000 Algerian Muslims to help with the business of keeping order. When the French gave up their colonial crown jewel, they evacuated not just these soldiers but also their families, some 300,000 persons in all. Known universally as Harkis (but bureaucratically as Repatriated French Muslims, or FMRs) they nearly forty years later have grown to a half million.

Their lot is not a happy one. Despised by Algerians and other Muslim immigrants as turncoats, they remain outcasts ("We Harkis are the only Muslims in town who don't have a place to pray"). As for the native French, any gratitude for Harki help in colonial Algeria long ago dissipated; what remains is a racist mistrust of them as lazy foreigners (fully 80 percent of the 18-25 cohort are unemployed). Muller, a talented young sociologist, has broached a subject few want to discuss. He shows the diversity of the Harkis, argues that in no sense do they constitute a single community, and outlines the range of their tribulations.

In part, he does so by pointing out telling details. One man, born in 1953 in Algeria as Mohammed Gueroumi, led a tormented existence in Algeria after his father was evacuated, at one point spending a month hiding with his grandfather in a cemetery. On arrival in France in 1966, Gueroumi found a father too ill to look after him, so he grew up in an orphanage where an employee decided to change his name to Jean-Pierre Guérin. Starting in 1976, he began a legal effort to gain back his old name (a French name and an Algerian face, ironically, had the effect of exacerbating prejudice), a campaign which over two decades later he is still fighting. The slowness of his case and the reluctance of the French authorities rather neatly illustrate the Harki predicament.



Harki

From Arabic: harka

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Term used for Muslim Algerians aiding the French Army during the Algerian War 1954-1962. Sometimes, the term is extended to describe all cooperating with or supporting the French in Algeria. It is somestimes also used for descendants of Algerians living in France since 1962.

The term comes from Arabic for "movement".

Today, "harki" today is a derogatory term, used by Muslims, Algerian nationalists and Islamists in anti-Western propaganda.

By the end of the Algerian War, perhaps 230,000 Muslim Algerians served in the French forces.

Many Harkis aided the French, often as reaction to the FLN's attacks on both them and rival nationalist groups.

The Evian Accords, ending the war in 1962, stated that the rights of the Harki should be protected by the new Muslim government of Algiers. In effect, many Harkis suffered hard after the war, thousands were killed, including children, involving grusome acts. The French government neglected the revenge wave.

Harkis living in France, are not allowed by the Algerian government to visit Algeria.

History

1830: Formation of the Armée d'Afrique in which North African Muslims serves as cavalry or normal soldiers.

1870: The Armée d'Afrique is active in the Franco-Prussian War.

1914-18: The Armée d'Afrique is active in World War 1.

1939-45: The Armée d'Afrique serves with more than 200,000 troops in World War 2, and were active in the liberation of France and the campaigns in Italy and Germany.

1954: Troops from the Armée d'Afrique serve in the French army in Indochina.

— Civil war breaks out in Algeria, causing loyalty problems for the Muslims serving for the French army. There were several incidents of desertation and mutiny. Many Harkis were recruited into self-defense units, stationed in their home regions.

1956: Harki troops serve increasingly alongside the French army.

1962: About 91,000 Harkis seek refuge in France. A wave of killings hit the remaining Harkis, killing thousands, often in the most grusome way.



Chirac hails Algerians who fought for France

By Harry de Quetteville in Paris

Last Updated: 11:12PM BST 25 Sep 2001

FRANCE finally paid tribute to the North Africans who fought on its side during the Algerian War yesterday, almost 40 years after it ended.

Military ceremonies around the country were the first acts of remembrance for the colonial troops, known as harkis, who fought with the French against the rebel National Liberation Front (FLN).

In a ceremony in central Paris, President Jacques Chirac unveiled a plaque in honour of those who died and decorated 85 former harkis.

Mr Chirac said: "France has not given the harkis their rightful due. It is time, indeed it is high time, that the nation does its moral duty and acknowledges their sacrifice and their dignity."

The day marked France's latest efforts to confront its bloody past in Algeria. The process began in 1999 when it officially recognised that the once euphemistically entitled "events" in Algeria, in which hundreds of thousands lost their lives, amounted to a war.

Since then, France has had to face grisly disclosures about the fighting, notably from former French officers who described the widespread use of torture on rebel suspects.

Pressure has mounted on the French government to apologise for its predecessors' role in the conflict. But until now the harkis have been overlooked, largely because they were the victims of one of the least glorious chapters in French military history.

When France and the FLN signed the Evian peace accord in March 1962, the 220,000 harkis in the ranks of the French army were rounded up and disarmed. The FLN agreed not to harm them, but as French troops pulled out, harkis in Algeria were abandoned to a predictably grim fate.

They and their families were considered traitors by the victorious rebels and up to 150,000 were massacred. About 40,000 fled to France, but instead of being welcomed as heroes they were effectively interned in military-style camps.

M Chirac, who was himself a soldier in Algeria, said: "We must work for the truth. The harkis and their families were the victims of a terrible tragedy. The massacres committed in 1962 of civilians, women and children bear an indelible stamp of barbarism."

He added: "When it left Algeria, France did not know how to prevent the massacres. It did not know how to save its children."

The harki community in France, now 400,000 strong, has long campaigned for recognition. Riots in the camps began in the 1970s. They were followed by a month-long sit-in in the Madeleine church in central Paris, and several protest marches.

Only two years ago, on Armistice Day, they were refused permission to lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe.

At yesterday's ceremony, attended by almost 1,000 former harkis, M Chirac said: "Honour to the harkis. Honour to those who died for France. Honour to all who, by their loyalty and their sacrifices, have deserved the thanks of the nation."

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