Emmanuel Macron has finally set the record straight. Seventy years to the day after the start of the Algerian War (1954-1962), the French president acknowledged, in a statement published on Friday, November 1, France's responsibility for the assassination of Larbi Ben M'hidi in March 1957, at the height of the Battle of Algiers. Until now, the French government had never denied the suicide theory put forward by the army at the time, even though General Paul Aussaresses confessed in 2001 to having hanged Ben M'hidi.
In the statement, Macron "recognizes today that Larbi Ben M'hidi, national hero for Algeria and one of the six FLN [National Liberation Front] leaders who launched the insurrection of November 1, 1954, was assassinated by French soldiers under the command of General Aussaresses."
This gesture is all the more significant as Ben M'hidi is not only an emblem of his country's independence but also a figure held in high esteem by the French military and intellectuals. "He was the revolutionary idealist, the politician, the theorist (...) He was convinced that political action would bring victory, and he neglected military support (...)," wrote the journalist Yves Courrière in his 1969 book Le temps des léopards ("The Time of Leopards").
It was historian Benjamin Stora who suggested to Macron that he restore the historical truth about the death at the age of 34 of this man considered to be the "Algerian Jean Moulin," a reference to the revered French WWII Resistance fighter. "He was the most important revolutionary leader of the War of Independence who was assassinated by the French special services," Stora told Le Monde. In his view, the French president's action "recognizes the political legitimacy of the Algerian nationalists' struggle."
Even a formidable enemy like General Marcel Bigeard (a colonel at the time), who led the 3rd regiment of colonial paratroopers during the Battle of Algiers, would say of Ben M'hidi that "he was the greatest, really." On February 23, 1957, his commando unit succeeded in arresting Ben M'hidi, the FLN's political and military leader for the Algiers region. He was found dead a few days later.
According to the version delivered by the French authorities at the time, Ben M'hidi killed himself in his cell on the night of March 3 by hanging himself with the shreds of his shirt, which he had made into a rope and tied to a window bar. In reality, the National Liberation Army (ALN) colonel was murdered by "Commandant O," the alias of Aussaresses – officially responsible for coordinating the work of intelligence, police and judicial officers during the Battle of Algiers – and six of his men.
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