Word: habib
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...wounded) inflicted by the French air force were women and children. Blandly ignoring these facts, Gaillard insisted that "the majority of the victims were soldiers of the Algerian F.L.N." and that, in.any case, responsibility for the attack must be laid at the door of Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba for allowing Algerian rebel forces to use Sakiet as a base of operations. "It is evident," ended Gaillard coolly, "that the French government does not recognize culpability in this affair...
...Leader for the Parade. France's intransigence put pro-Western Habib Bourguiba squarely on the spot. Appearing in the streets of Tunis, he was greeted by outraged crowds shouting. "Give us arms! Give us arms!" L'Action, official organ of Bourguiba's Neo-Destour Party, editorialized: "To be respected in 1958 one can no longer be a friend of the West. The day that Bourguiba decides to follow the path set by Nehru, Tito and Nasser, Tunisia will no longer be lied about and attacked. She will be wooed." Cooed Beirut's El Massa: "Turn...
...politician with a barometric response to popular mood, shrewd Habib Bourguiba recognized that his only hope of heading off a national swing to neutralism lay in putting himself at the head of the anti-French parade. Bourguiba ordered 400 French civilians out of the Tunisian-Algerian border area "for security reasons," demanded that France close five of her ten consulates in Tunisia, directed his U.N. delegation to request an immediate Security Council debate on the Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef bombing. In his most drastic move he also demanded immediate withdrawal of the 22,000 troops that France has been permitted...
Slowly tempers cooled. In Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba relaxed his blockade of French bases enough to permit the entry of civilian trucks carrying food. In Paris, too, there were second thoughts. From the start Foreign Minister Pineau had been privately dismayed by the attack on Sakiet. (When U.S. Columnist Joseph Alsop quoted him as calling the bombing "a sad error," Pineau at first flatly denied the quote, then admitted, "I may have said a few imprudent words" which Alsop had "distorted...
Back to Normalcy. Back of France's sudden fit of savagery was a longer-growing irritation with Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba. Increasingly, France blames Bourguiba and his open support of Algeria's F.L.N. for its inability to crush the rebellion. The French have tried to seal off the 500-mile Tunisian border with heavy patrols and an electric fence. But Algerian recruits pour across it for intensive schooling in tactics at Tunisian-based training centers; trained men and equipment pour back to go into action in eastern Algeria...