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Algeria
De Gaulle
Europeans as well as many Muslims greeted de Gaulle's return
to power as the breakthrough needed to end the hostilities. On
his June 4 trip to Algeria, de Gaulle calculatedly made an ambiguous
and broad emotional appeal to all the inhabitants, declaring "Je
vous ai compris" (I have understood you). De Gaulle raised the
hopes of colons and the professional military, disaffected by
the indecisiveness of previous governments, with his exclamation
of "Vive Algérie française" (long live French Algeria) to cheering
crowds in Mostaganem. At the same time, he proposed economic,
social, and political reforms to ameliorate the situation of the
Muslims. Nonetheless, de Gaulle later admitted to having harbored
deep pessimism about the outcome of the Algerian situation even
then. Meanwhile, he looked for a "third force" among Muslims and
Europeans, uncontaminated by the FLN or the "ultras"--colon extremists--through
whom a solution might be found.
De Gaulle immediately appointed a committee to draft a new constitution
for France's Fifth Republic, which would be declared early the
next year, with which Algeria would be associated but of which
it would not form an integral part. Muslims, including women,
were registered for the first time with Europeans on a common
electoral roll to participate in a referendum to be held on the
new constitution in September 1958.
De Gaulle's initiative threatened the FLN with the prospect of
losing the support of the growing numbers of Muslims who were
tired of the war and had never been more than lukewarm in their
commitment to a totally independent Algeria. In reaction, the
FLN set up the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic
(Gouvernement Provisionel de la République Algérienne--GPRA),
a government-in-exile headed by Abbas and based in Tunis. Before
the referendum, Abbas lobbied for international support for the
GPRA, which was quickly recognized by Morocco, Tunisia, and several
other Arab countries, by a number of Asian and African states,
and by the Soviet Union and other East European states.
ALN commandos committed numerous acts of sabotage in France in
August, and the FLN mounted a desperate campaign of terror in
Algeria to intimidate Muslims into boycotting the referendum.
Despite threats of reprisal, however, 80 percent of the Muslim
electorate turned out to vote in September, and of these 96 percent
approved the constitution. In February 1959, de Gaulle was elected
president of the new Fifth Republic. He visited Constantine in
October to announce a program to end the war and create an Algeria
closely linked to France in which Europeans and Muslims would
join as partners. De Gaulle's call on the rebel leaders to end
hostilities and to participate in elections was met with adamant
refusal. "The problem of a cease-fire in Algeria is not simply
a military problem," said the GPRA's Abbas. "It is essentially
political, and negotiation must cover the whole question of Algeria."
Secret discussions that had been underway were broken off.
In 1958-59 the French army had won military control in Algeria
and was the closest it would be to victory. During that period
in France, however, opposition to the conflict was growing among
many segments of the population. Thousands of relatives of conscripts
and reserve soldiers suffered loss and pain; revelations of torture
and the indiscriminate brutality the army visited on the Muslim
population prompted widespread revulsion; and a significant constituency
supported the principle of national liberation. International
pressure was also building on France to grant Algeria independence.
Annually since 1955 the UN General Assembly had considered the
Algerian question, and the FLN position was gaining support. France's
seeming intransigence in settling a colonial war that tied down
half the manpower of its armed forces was also a source of concern
to its North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. In a
September 1959 statement, de Gaulle dramatically reversed his
stand and uttered the words "self-determination," which he envisioned
as leading to majority rule in an Algeria formally associated
with France. In Tunis, Abbas acknowledged that de Gaulle's statement
might be accepted as a basis for settlement, but the French government
refused to recognize the GPRA as the representative of Algeria's
Muslim community.
Claiming that de Gaulle had betrayed them, the colons, backed
by units of the army, staged an insurrection in Algiers in January
1960 that won mass support in Europe. As the police and army stood
by, rioting colons threw up barricades in the streets and seized
government buildings. In Paris, de Gaulle called on the army to
remain loyal and rallied popular support for his Algeria policy
in a televised address. Most of the army heeded his call, and
in Algiers General Challe quickly defused the insurrection. The
failure of the colon uprising and the loss of many ultra leaders
who were imprisoned or transferred to other areas did not deter
the militant colons. Highly organized and well-armed vigilante
groups stepped up their terrorist activities, which were directed
against both Muslims and progovernment Europeans, as the move
toward negotiated settlement of the war and self-determination
gained momentum. To the FLN rebellion against France were added
civil wars between extremists in the two communities and between
the ultras and the French government in Algeria.
Data as of December 1993
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