French Armed Forces Developed Internationally Banned Weapons In Algeria

Member of the French Senate for the Communist Party, Pierre Laurent, exposed part of the French army’s practices against military ethics during the colonial era, when he revealed the military operations that used internationally prohibited weapons, that he considered by as war crimes, and called on his country to recognize and condemn them officially .

The leftist senator explained, in his account of the many contradictions in which the official French positions, hidden and invisible, are neglecting, on the internationally banned chemical weapons that were used in Algeria, revealing crimes that his country’s authorities have always avoided to talk about through asking a question to the French Minister of Armed Forces, Florence Parly.

The question was posed after the statement that was issued by the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean Yves Le Drian, who said that his country is committed to fighting chemical weapons since the Battle of Ypres in 1915, which was considered by the senator a contradiction with what France is doing actually.

Pierre Laurent talked about the French army’s use of Napalm gas weapons during its battles against the Algerian liberation revolution, or what the French political and historical literature call “The war of Algeria”.

He said that the colonial armed forces had resorted to the internationally banned Napalm weapons in an attempt to eradicate the revolution in its early stages, in December 1954, in what is known as the “Aloés operation” in the stronghold of Algerian revolution, the Aures mountains.

The French senator, as stated in the text of the question published in the Official Gazette of the French Senate, number 04697, referred to the involvement of the colonial army in the use of burning Napalm Gas in another military operation called Veronique in January 1955, in regions of the historic second Wilaya (province), in an effort to intimidate Algerians from embracing the flames of their revolution.

According to the author of the question, with the rapid spread of the revolution, the napalm weapon became widely used by the French armed forces, especially following the beginning of the manifestation of the “Challe Plan”, from February,6, 1959 until April 6, 1961.

Pierre Laurent added that despite the international commitments which were signed by France, but it has continued to test some chemical weapons under Algerian soil, including internationally banned Sarin Gas, which was tested at the B2-NAMOUS French secret military base in the southwestern part of the country, and tests continued after Algeria’s independence on various weapons, including nuclear weapons.

According to information that was provided by Internet research tools, the B2-NAMOUS French secret military base witnessed the continued tests of the French authorities on chemical and biological weapons until 1986, the year in which Paris abandoned this secret military base, according to the same source.

Algeria has not been the only country among the colonies of France to have been subjected to these crimes, which Paris still refuses to recognize and apologize for.

He confirmed his country’s assistance to the Spanish in the development of chemical weapons in the northern Moroccan city of Melilla for use in the Rif war (1921/1926) , after the date of France’s commitment to fight the spread of chemical weapons corresponding to the year 1915, as said by the French Foreign Minister.

Laurent cites other examples of French supremacy in this regard, such as Indochina, which in 1950 and 1951 was attacked with napalm gas, as in the Battle of the Black River in 1952 and the Battle of Diane Bian Phu in 1953 in Vietnam.

Napalm was also used in Tunisia (Bizerte) in 1961 and in Cameroon, which he described as “war crimes”.

He called on his country to officially recognize and condemn its crimes, and to open the archive of these abuses in order to count them.