MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from English to French – Published September 13, 2018
"This system was installed without any modification to the Penal Code, without the principles of 1789 having ceased to be proclaimed as the basis of the State and without the governments having ceased to state officially that torture was condemnable, even if they were more willing to blame those who denounced it than those who practiced it. »(Pierre Vidal-Naquet)
SYNTHESIS OF THE DECLARATION
For sixty-one years, the "disappearance" of Maurice Audin, a young mathematician who worked at the University of Algiers and campaigned for Algerian independence, remains a gray area in the history of the Algerian war. Those who, in the tradition of Pierre Vidal-Naquet, investigated the case – historians, journalists, documentary filmmakers, etc. – have meticulously cross-checked the testimonies, the documents, the likelihoods to establish a bundle of concordant indices. Their works all agree that the death of Maurice Audin was made possible by a legally established system that promoted disappearances and allowed torture for political ends.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has therefore decided that it is time for the Nation to carry out truth work on this subject. He acknowledged, in the name of the French Republic, that Maurice Audin had been tortured and then executed or tortured to death by soldiers who had arrested him at his home. He also acknowledges that although his death is ultimately the responsibility of a few, it has nevertheless been made possible by a system legally instituted: the "arrest-detention" system, set up under the special powers which had been entrusted by law to the armed forces at that time.
The President of the Republic wishes that all the archives of the State which concern the disappeared of the war of Algeria can be freely consulted and that a general derogation is instituted in this sense.
Finally, the President of the Republic believes that the actions of certain individuals can not weigh on the conscience of all those who have not committed and have not subscribed. This is why people who have been able to know the circumstances of the death of Maurice Audin are called to express themselves freely in order to give their testimony and thus reinforce the truth.
DECLARATION
On the evening of June 11, 1957, Maurice Audin, assistant mathematician at the Faculty of Algiers, militant of the Algerian Communist Party (PCA), was arrested at his home by soldiers. After the outbreak of war by the National Liberation Front (FLN), the PCA, which supports the independence struggle, is dissolved and its leaders are actively sought. Maurice Audin is one of those who help them in hiding.
Everyone knows then in Algiers that the men and women arrested in these circumstances do not always come back. Some are released, others are interned, others are brought to justice, but many families lose track of one of them that year in the future capital of Algeria. "Disappearances", which are deplored elsewhere on all sides during the conflict, are soon counted in the thousands.
Also, Josette Audin, left alone with three young children, held for several days in her apartment, struggles as soon as she can to try to find out where her husband is detained. The military command then gives her what would remain for decades the official version: her husband escaped. The answer is commonly made to families looking for information. The complaint of kidnapping and forcible confinement that she files then, stumbles, like others, on the silence or the lie of the key witnesses who obstruct the investigation. This was finally closed in 1962 by a non-place, because of the amnesty decrees taken at the end of the war in Algeria, which put an end to any possibility of prosecution.
Maurice Audin never reappeared and the exact circumstances of his disappearance remain unclear. The narrative of the escape that appears in official reports and minutes suffers from too many contradictions and improbabilities to be credible. This is obviously a staging to hide his death. The evidence gathered during the investigation of Josette Audin's complaint or with witnesses indicates, however, with certainty that he was tortured.
Several hypotheses have been made about the death of Maurice Audin. The historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet defended, on the strength of a testimony, that the intelligence officer in charge of questioning Maurice Audin had killed him himself. Paul Aussaresses, and others, claimed that a commando under his command had executed the young mathematician. It is also possible that he died under torture.
In any case, its disappearance was made possible by a system that successive governments have allowed to develop: the system called "arrest-detention" at the time, which authorizes the police to stop , detain and interrogate any "suspect" for the purpose of a more effective fight against the opponent.
This system was established on a legal basis: the special powers. This law, passed by Parliament in 1956, gave carte blanche to the Government to restore order in Algeria. It allowed the adoption of a decree authorizing the delegation of police powers to the army, which was implemented by prefectural order, first in Algiers, then throughout Algeria, in 1957.
This system was the unfortunate breeding ground of sometimes terrible acts, including torture, that the Audin case brought to light. While torture has not ceased to be a crime under the law, it has developed because it went unpunished. And it went unpunished because it was conceived as a weapon against the FLN, which launched the uprising in 1954, but also against those who were seen as its allies, activists and supporters of independence; a weapon considered legitimate in this war, despite its illegality.
By failing to prevent and punish the use of torture, successive governments have endangered the survival of the men and women who were seized by law enforcement. Ultimately, however, it is their responsibility to ensure the protection of human rights and, first and foremost, the physical integrity of those who are detained under their sovereignty.
It is important that this story be known, that it be viewed with courage and lucidity.
It is the appeasement and serenity of those she has bruised, which she has upset the destinies, both in Algeria and France. Recognition will not cure their ills. It will undoubtedly remain irreparable in everyone but a recognition must be able, symbolically, to offload those who still bend under the weight of this past. It is in this spirit, in any case, that it is thought and today formulated.
The same goes for the honor of all Frenchmen who, civil or military, have disapproved of torture, have not surrendered themselves to it or have withdrawn from it, and who, today as well as yesterday, refuse to be assimilated to those who instituted and practiced it.
It is the honor of all the soldiers who died for France and more generally of all those who lost their lives in this conflict.
Finally, there is the duty of truth which lies with the French Republic, which in this area, as in others, must show the way, because it is only by truth that reconciliation is possible and it is not freedom, equality and fraternity without exercise of truth.
The Republic can not, therefore, minimize or excuse the crimes and atrocities committed on both sides during this conflict. France still bears the scars, sometimes badly closed.
So the work of memory does not end with this statement. This recognition aims in particular to encourage the historical work on all the disappeared of the war of Algeria, French and Algerian, civil and military.
A general derogation, the contours of which will be specified by ministerial decrees after identification of the available sources, will open to free consultation all the archives of the State which concern this subject.
Finally, those who have documents or testimonies to deliver are called to turn to the national archives to participate in this effort of historical truth.
The deepening of this work of truth must pave the way for a better understanding of our past, for a greater lucidity on the wounds of our history, and for a new desire for the reconciliation of memories and the French and Algerian peoples.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a translation. Please accept our apologies should the grammar and / or sentence structure not be perfect.
