Hollande Recognises French Brutality In Algeria

French President Francois Hollande has acknowledged the brutality of France's occupation of Algeria, but stopped short of an apology.

In a speech at the Palais des Nations in Algiers on the second and final day of his landmark visit to the former French colony, he accepted the "unjust" and "brutal" nature of France's colonial history in the North African country.

He also recognised the "massacres" by the French during the seven-year war that led to Algerian independence in 1962.

Mr Hollande and Mr Bouteflika get down to business

It is the deep scars of the 1954-1962 conflict, in which hundreds of thousands of people died, that Mr Hollande has been seeking to remedy on his first state visit since his election in May.

Ties between the two countries have been fraught with tension since the Algerian War.

As the North African nation celebrates 50 years of independence from France, Mr Hollande believes it is time for a "new era".

Having already made clear on Wednesday that he was not on a visit to "repent or apologise" for France's colonial past in Algeria, he told the country's parliamentarians on Thursday: "History, even when it is tragic, even when it is painful for our two countries, must be told.

"For 132 years, Algeria was subjected to a profoundly unjust and brutal system.

Mr Hollande addresses the Algerian parliament

"I recognise here the suffering that colonisation has inflicted on the Algerian people."

Mr Hollande notably listed the sites of three massacres, including one at Setif where seven years ago current Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika compared French methods to those used by Nazi Germany and asked France to make a "gesture ... to erase this black stain".

The two leaders have agreed to relaunch relations with a new pact between the two nations, bolstered by economic, trade, cultural, agricultural and defence ties.

Mr Hollande, who brought with him senior executives from some of France's top firms, announced French carmaker Renault had agreed to build a factory in Algeria to produce some 75,000 cars a year.

A new start must "be supported by a base", Mr Hollande said, and "this base is truth".

"Nothing is built in secretiveness, forgetting, denial," he added.

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