Algeria’s parliament has unanimously approved a law declaring France’s 132-year colonial occupation a crime, demanding an apology and reparations.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers wearing scarves in the colours of the national flag rose to their feet and chanted \u201clong live Algeria<\/a>\u201d as they applauded the progress of the bill, which states that France holds \u201clegal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused\u201d.<\/p>\n France’s rule over the North African <\/a>country, which lasted from 1830 until 1962, still blights relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n The French<\/a> Foreign Ministry said the move was \u201chostile\u201d and counterproductive to \u201cthe desire to resume Franco-Algerian dialogue and to calm discussions on historical issues\u201d.<\/p>\n The vote comes as the two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisis, and while the move is largely symbolic, it is politically significant, one analyst said.<\/p>\n The legislation lists the \u201ccrimes of French colonisation\u201d, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plundering of resources.<\/p>\n It states that \u201cfull and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people\u201d.<\/p>\n The new law also criminalises what it calls glorification of French colonialism in any form, including acts, writing and videos.<\/p>\n Those convicted may face a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine of as much as one million dinars ($7,720) though it does not precisely define what would count as glorifying.<\/p>\n The Parliament\u2019s speaker Brahim Boughali said the vote would send \u201ca clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable\u201d.<\/p>\n The period of French rule was marked by mass killings and large-scale deportations, all the way up to the bloody war of independence <\/a>from 1954-1962.<\/p>\n Algeria said the war <\/a>killed 1.5 million people, while French historians put the death toll at 500,000 in total, 400,000 of them Algerian.<\/p>\n French President Emmanuel Macron has previously acknowledged the colonisation of Algeria as a \u201ccrime against humanity\u201d but has stopped short of offering an apology.<\/p>\n Hosni Kitouni, a researcher in colonial history at the University of Exeter in the UK, said that \u201clegally, this law has no international scope and therefore is not binding for France\u201d.<\/p>\n But \u201cits political and symbolic significance is important: it marks a rupture in the relationship with France in terms of memory\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n The move comes at a time of diplomatic friction<\/a> between Paris and Algiers that began last year, when France officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara<\/a> region, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.<\/p>\n Several events have since inflamed tensions, such as the conviction and imprisonment of the French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal<\/a>, who was pardoned following German intervention.<\/p>\n