Trending 
Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime, calling for an official apology and reparations from the French government.
Lawmakers approved the bill on Wednesday, standing in the chamber and chanting “long live Algeria” as they applauded its passage. The legislation states that France bears “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused.”
The vote comes at a time of strained relations between Algeria and France. Analysts say the law is largely symbolic but carries political weight.
The legislation lists the “crimes of French colonisation”, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic exploitation of resources.
It also states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people.”
Parliament speaker Brahim Boughali said ahead of the vote that the law sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable,” according to the state-run APS news agency.
France ruled Algeria from 1830 until 1962, a period that ended with a war of independence between 1954 and 1962. Algeria says 1.5 million people were killed during the conflict, while French historians estimate about 500,000 deaths, including roughly 400,000 Algerians.
French President Emmanuel Macron has previously described France’s colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has not issued a formal apology.
