3% The story France was not allowed to read y& ‘Dirty war’ waged gainst Algeria Behind reports that French rese demonstrators have stopped troop trains a savage war of repression the Frenc When Robert Lambotte sent a dispatch to |’ Humanite, Fre ing the truth, the government ordered all copies of the issue Here is a condensation of that story. By ROBERT LAMBOTTE we have every right to ask today. ; And the overall pressure of events — which were to conclusion that the final curtain will ring down, possibly From the very first it was clear that ‘‘an enforced name they like to give it, would resolve nothing. .. . During the last 18 months the fighting has increased so that today it is in fact war which is being waged on Al- gerian soil. Looked at from the military point of view alone, a glance at the headquarters’ maps shows that from Constantine and Oran two huge splurges, colored red and blue by the strategists, are daily closing in on Algiers. Thése are the areas where the French troops can only hold on to the roads — and not always those at night—and where am- bushes become ever more numer- ous and bloody. These are the areas where the guerillas ar practically in control... .- Shots claim their victims in the big towns. There is fighting less than 20 miles from Algiers. All contact between Algiers, Bougie and Jijelli has to be made by sea—normal traffic by road be- ing impossible. Throughout Con- stantine and also in Oran, all toad transport is under military €scort. In Algiers itself the atmosphere is becoming more and more tense. The whole front pages of the morning papers are taken up with accounts of the previous. day’s battles. Rifle fire crackles even in the main thoroughfares: eight dead on one day alone— (Nauti) Gaia The whole of Algeria lives at Present in a climate of acute ~ tension. .. What is the real character of what Paris calls “the essential task of pacification”? A glance at the local press would give even someone without a know- ledge of the situation a good idea. On April 23, @ huge air ope- |, ration was undertaken in the Tlemsen sector. Metchtas (Al- Serian villages) were wiped out by bombs. A whole area was ‘machine gunned by a squadron. ear Nemours, the same week, other villages were razed. The ®xcuse? The villages were “har- boring rebels.” , But the colonial press does not bother with excuses. It says the villages near Palestro were bombed because they were “sus- Dect.” An Algerian evening Daper was even content to say that they were considered “doubtful.” There is not a village in Algeria which wouldn't quali- fy under this epithet for bombing. It would seem. that “paci- fication” is the necessary pre- requisite for the elections. But What kind of peace reigns to- day in the villages “pacified” by bombs?Are the ballot boxes rvists have rioted against being sent to Algeria, that nd carried off reservists, lies the story of the h government is waging against the Algerian peoples. nch Communist daily, reveal- carrying his story to be seized. | 3 PARIS] Is the drama being played out in Algeria reaching its climax? That is the question be. expected — leads to the within a short while. solution’’” or whatever fancy going to be set up among the -ruins? You still would have © to find the electors—and, any- how, for whom would these few survivors vote? Probably the exact number of victims of the March 29 manhunt through the streets of Constan- tine will never be known.... Various reliable reports make a conservative estimate of 400 dead. There has often been talk of blind repression. This was worse than that. On that day, at 6 p.m., colonial militiamen drew up in a police car at the Constantine hospital and kidnapped Ladjabi Mohammed Tahar, secretary of the Hospital Staffs Union. For several days his family had no news of him. Then they were informed that Ladjabi’s body had been thrown into a ditch at Kroubs, some miles out- side Constantine. Be Boudour, a Communist railway worker, was murdered in similar circumstances. Men who said they were police officers arrested him when he was having his dinner with his wife. Just a routine identity check-up, they said. He| was found riddled by bullets. The same thing happened to Bouzou Abdelmalec, director of the health centre; Boualleg, mu- nicipal councillor; Ridi Haudou, secretary of the Oulémas reli- gious association. It is public knowledge in Con- .stantine that lists of hostages, consisting of as many Arabs as Europeans have been drawn up by the colonial militiamen, and that on the strength of dozens of such lists executions of this kind were carried out on that Thurs- day, March 29.. .. It would take pages and pages to recount how many men are shot every day; how many are rounded up in lorries and driven into deserted parts of the country never to return. . Recently I saw a family from the Kabilia Mountains. They refuge in Algiers with their re- latives. This family used to live in the little village of Zoubla. On April 19 troops surrounded the hamlet. investigating the murder of* an informer. All the men were herd- ed into the mosque. Two of them came, like so many others, to seek monopolists. screamed for hours as they were beaten up. by the investigators. However, they got no information out of them. Seven hostages were then picked out. Seven men between 40 and 50—among them the Bouadouk _brothers, -Sakdek and Areski, who had 13 childr- shot in front of their relatives. As an example. ..... However, one man was saved: Just as the soldiers were going to shoot him, his wife threw herself at the officer, tugged at his sleeve and cried out: “Tf you want to kill him, kill me and the children first! If my husband is taken from us, what is to become of us? It’s better to take us all.” f The officer tried to kick her away, but she held on all the tighter. She repeated her plea. At last the husband was taken out of the ranks of the hostages, his life having only been saved through the whim, the hesitation of an officer who was himself only obeying orders... ° . It’s impossible at the moment ae * ‘This is one of the pictures that have helped to arouse the French people against the war in Algeria. It shows a French policeman shooting down an Algerian. The news- : . charged that the newsreel cameraman who Lend gehaie : to shoot the Algerian in cold blood in order to provide him French auxiliary policeman with an “exclusive” photo. took the picture had hired the June 1, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3 en between them. They were | * French Socialists in Algeria, say- Lambotte, find their position untenable. For the Socialist who occupies the governor-general’s palace in Algiers (above) dismisses their own protests and is applauded for his actions by the colonial to make a precise appraisal of this atrocious oppression.Military activities alone fill up three pages of the daily newspapers. But there is not a word about the summary shootings, about the round-ups,the bursts of fire through the doors of Arab dwel- ROSS 2.2. Since the suppression of the newspaper Algiers Republican, the colonial multi-millionaires— the Borgeauds, the Blachettes and others—control the whole of the Algerian press. For months they have maintained a system- atic campaign. to sow alarm and despondency among the Europ- ean population. _ , The idea is to make them be- lieve that the end of the colonial system would be just as rfuch of a danger to the postal worker as to the big landlord with 6,000 acres... The events of February 6, and the hostile reception given to Premier Guy Mollet were the result of this non-stop alarmist. campaign. It would have been easy to have put a stop to this campaign with- in a few days. For, after all is said and done, it is patently ob- vious that the advocates of total war against the Arab population —those who fear the loss of their ill-gotten privileges—are a mere handful and in no sense can they claim to speak for those whom they call “the Algerian French.” But when Lacoste, the Socialist minister president, said he did not want to have two fronts on his hands, the “extremists” ap- plauded. When there is talk of talk of “pacification” first and « reform afterwards, they applaud again. ... - Socialists are gravely disturb- ed... .. They tell me: “Here governors-general develop quick- ly.” Lacoste took it upon himself to go to Constantine to pay ostentatious tribute to Dupuch, prefect of Constantine, who bore a heavy responsibility for the re- pression there, and to thank him for what he had done. _ It’s quite another thing when Socialist or Radical delegations attempt—with scant success— to put forward their point of view on the absolute necessity for an immediate cease-fire and for ne- gotiations. One of these delegations was recently given this reply: “Gentlemen, you are not ad- dressing a comrade but a minister- president who is obliged to carry out a certain policy. Hf you, my friends, attempt to cross my path I won't hesitate to sweep you aside.”