Algeria Answers De Gaulle
GILLESPIE, JOAN
Rebels propose peace negotiations and 'ballot box in place of machine gun' Algeria Answers De Gaulle By Joan Gillespie Last week, two regular NL correspondents, George B. Boswell and Sal Tas,...
...In a sense, he has now given the choice to Algeria that he gave to France's African territories last September, when they were able to choose independence or some form of association with France...
...Although it was not entirely clear, de Gaulle suggested France might partition Algeria...
...The provisional government holds the key to a cease-fire...
...It means the lives of many more Algerians and a complete rupture with the West...
...Then France would effectively extend "from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset" in the Sahara...
...In his long-awaited speech, General de Gaulle lauded the French contribution, both material and moral, to the "human problem" that is Algeria...
...And the rebel provisional government, by accepting his initiative and asking him to talk about it, has gone as far as it can to meet him...
...One thing was clear from the beginning: This was a serious message and it warranted a serious reply...
...Only one state, Guinea, opted for independence at the time, but two others have already announced they intend to do so soon...
...The third possibility is a "government of Algerians by Algerians, leaning upon the aid of France and in close union with her, in economic matters, education, defense and foreign affairs...
...On the delicate matter of how negotiations could be undertaken between France and the rebels, the Algerians made a second concession...
...With them and for them, France will assure the liberty of their choice...
...Rebels propose peace negotiations and 'ballot box in place of machine gun' Algeria Answers De Gaulle By Joan Gillespie Last week, two regular NL correspondents, George B. Boswell and Sal Tas, discussed the terms and implications of General Charles de Gaulle's momentous policy declaration on Algeria ("New Hope for Algeria...
...That they now agree to vote once more under French aegis, after "nearly a million dead...
...And Algeria's future foreign policy would be to build the Maghreb (the Arab West) and to cooperate with all...
...For the Algerian provisional government as well as for France and the West, the rebels' reply on September 28 was a crucial one...
...But these strictures paled in significance beside the substitution of the ballot box for the machine gun, and a new flexibility for negotiations...
...TUNIS FRANCE'S President Charles de Gaulle has taken a decisive step toward ending the Algerian war...
...It was this man, leader of France in its days of trial, who offered self-determination to the Algerians in his extraordinary declaration of September 16...
...The Algerians took these views into consideration, although they did not wholly accede to them...
...The consultation of the Algerian people, de Gaulle promised, would take place no more than four years after the return of peace to Algeria...
...This would mean two or three years of hard fighting, no discussion with France, and acceptance of the aid which Communist China is offering us...
...Referring to past history, the rebels' reply made it quite clear that no free choice could be exercised "under the pressure of more than half a million soldiers, and almost as many gendarmes, police and militiamen...
...For almost two weeks, the members of Ferhat Abbas' provisional government and of the larger National Council of the Algerian Revolution, along with high level military men from the interior, congregated in Tunis to study the declaration and debate its implications...
...The fate of Algerians belongs to Algerians, not at all as the knife and the machine gun would impose it, but as they will express their will legitimately through universal suffrage...
...Complete integration would mean full equality between Frenchmen and Algerians at all levels...
...There was no chance that France would deal with these rebels, no chance of negotiation...
...And all Frenchmen, he added, would also be consulted on Algeria's choice...
...Taking into account all the elements, Algerian, national and international, I consider it necessary that recourse to self-determination be proclaimed from today onwards...
...It also asserted that Algerian independence would not bring "anarchy and misery," but was "the condition of all real progress...
...The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic is ready to enter into talks with the French Government to discuss the political and military conditions of a cease-fire, the conditions and guarantees of the application of self-determination...
...In any case, should this eventuality arise, France would regroup those Frenchmen and Algerians wishing to remain French and would retain control of Saharan oil...
...Thanks to the progress of pacification, to the democratic progress, to the social progress, one can now envisage the day when the men and women who live in Algeria will be in a position to decide their destiny, once and for all, freely, and with full knowledge...
...The first alternative, secession or independence, de Gaulle considered disastrous...
...President de Gaulle has consistently maintained that if the way of universal suffrage were open—and he implied on September 16 that it had not been thus far—then the rebellion had no reason to continue...
...It contained something of substance, a ray of hope...
...Most of French and world public opinion reacted favorably to the policy declaration...
...Several members of the provisional government have themselves been victims of electoral "irregularities...
...Their revolution, Algerian leaders felt, had brought about a revolution in French thinking...
...The Algerian government, then, is not a de jure, but a de facto, organism...
...These countries reasoned that only the existence of the provisional government, proclaimed last year, prevented de Gaulle from talking directly to those directing the rebellion...
...It would bring with it "dreadful misery, terrible political chaos, general throat-cutting and ultimately a bellicose Communist dictatorship...
...The Algerian government has come of age," remarked one observer...
...Perhaps we have seen the beginning of the end...
...Those who made the revolution in 1954 did so after they had exhausted all political means to achieve their ends...
...It directs and controls the resistance of the Algerian people and the liberating struggle of the Army of National Liberation...
...De Gaulle's solution was only to apply after the return of peace...
...With the possibility of self-determination before them, what meaning could a continued insurrection have for Algerians, asked de Gaulle...
...This nearly five-year-old conflict has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Algerians and Frenchmen, strained the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and created a deep gap between the West and the uncommitted world...
...It could lead to one of three results: secession, integration or federation...
...is a virtual second revolution...
...It is an instrument of war, which will disappear as soon as the referendum takes place —as soon as sovereignty is given again to the Algerian people...
...A second crucial point remained to be met...
...If de Gaulle has acted in good faith, the Algerian leaders reason, this definition of their provisional regime, named, incidentally, after the one de Gaulle himself headed in Algiers at the end of World War II, will permit him to negotiate...
...stated the declaration, "recognized today by numerous states, is the depository and guarantor of the interests of the Algerian people until the latter freely expresses itself...
...The Algerian declaration denounced the possible partition of Algeria as "illusory" and reaffirmed Algerian claims to Saharan resources...
...Either we go along with de Gaulle or we undertake an all-out war...
...Here, Joan Gillespie, a roving NL reporter in Africa, presents first impressions of the rebel reaction to the French initiative...
...Amid the glaring floodlights and flashbulbs of a large contingent of the international press, Ferhat Abbas declared his government "intended to neglect no occasion to give every chance to peace...
...This solution, much like the relationship which now exists between France and the twelve Black African autonomous republics in the French Community, seemed to be the one favored by the President...
...The rebel provisional government was under great pressure from Tunisia and France and some of her allies to announce its own dissolution and participate in the referendum under de Gaulle's conditions...
...It finally brought de Gaulle to the helm last June, thus obviating a serious threat of civil war in France itself...
...For the first time, a French head of state had said in effect: Algeria is not France: even its independence is conceivable...
...The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic...
...This," promised the Algerian declaration, "can be immediate...
...He solemnly accepted Algerian participation in the consultation proposed by de Gaulle...
...under the pressure of planes, tanks and cannons, under the pressure of ?? administrative apparatus whose traditions of electoral fraud are known...
...This willingness to go to the polls in Algeria is the most striking evolution in the Algerian position since the rebellion broke out in 1954...
...It is a choice we wish to avoid if we can possibly do so...
...As one Algerian military man put it, "We have only two choices now...
Vol. 42 • October 1959 • No. 37
