Word: algerians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...French set up an Algerian Parliament to deal with local affairs. The Arabs' Nationalist Party withdrew from elections, maintaining (correctly) that the seating was rigged in favor of the French colons. Extremists organized a bloody rising in the eastern mountains last year. Moderate Nationalists might have worked for compromise, but the French outlawed the entire party and declared that because "Algeria is France," revolt on the soil of Algeria is treason. When Morocco's "Fateful Day" arrived a fortnight...
With perfect timing, gangs of Algerian fellaghas (rebel bandits) raided French police stations and stormed the railroad station on the outskirts of Constantine (pop. 119,000). Fourteen Frenchmen standing at a bar were blown to bits by a bomb. The fellaghas called themselves "The Army of Liberation"; they were joined by urban terrorists known as "Death Battalions." The rebels swept through dozens of French villages, burning, looting and killing. Scores of French civilians were knifed or torn to pieces before the troops swung into action...
Pitched battles broke out in half a dozen Algerian towns. It was impossible to count all the casualties, but reliable estimates ranged as high as 560 dead (460 of them rebels) and possibly thousands injured...
...Only Negotiation . . ." French officials blamed the outbreak on three sinister influences acting in concert: 1) Tunisian fellaghas (bandits), hard-pressed in their own country, who had crossed the Algerian border; 2) the inflammatory Cairo radio; 3) the extremist nationalist Algerian movement known as the MTLD (Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties). Leader of the MTLD is Ahmed Messali Hadj, now in exile at Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, but reported in contact with Algerian underground leaders, and suspected of being the hand that set off last week's synchronized violence...
...French say they will not negotiate the Algerian question-that revolt on the soil of Algeria is treason. "The only negotiation," said Interior Minister Francois Mitterrand, "is war." The Algerian nationalists have an answer: "La valise ou le cercueil"-meaning, if you don't take a traveling bag, you will get a coffin...