France censors violence against Algerians: report

BBC Türkçe

French president Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech as he visits the French gendarmerie headquarters in Cayenne, French Guiana, on January 21, 2012. AFP Photo

The French government censored reports of the country’s violent acts committed against Algerians during the latter’s war of independence out of a recent official document, Britain’s The Times newspaper recently claimed, according to BBC Türkçe.
 
The government requested a historical piece from French historian Guy Perville on the Algerian war that was then substantially cut on the grounds that the loss of Algiers remained a trauma for modern France.
 
The director of the French national archives, Hervé Lemoin, said the Algerian issue was too sensitive to be studied objectively and that the article consequently had to be censored.
 
Perville said his piece initially focused on how the struggle for independence, which began with a peaceful agreement, turned into a series of violent confrontations and terror acts.
 
Noting that he had been censored for the first time in over 40 years, Perville said his piece was transformed into a story of glory for the French.