This is an article by Kathleen Voss Woolrich published on wafin.com :Paris is BurningBy Kathleen Voss Woolrich The American media reports The savage sons of the Magreb are burning dear ParisOr so it seems This is not the first time blood has been shed in the streets of Paris No mention is made of what France did to deserve this Like a school boy being beaten for a long forgotten crime The Aures Mountains hold the key The cradle of revolt and gaunt skeletons of French watch towers Algerians just say "A page has turned" Moroccans often do not remember 1952 and what the French did in Casablanca Gunning down 100 innocent Moroccans in the streets The French Foreign Legion in Bel Abbes holds no trace of the "Beau Geste" The 1 R.E.P. marched out in 1961 Leaving shattered souls in Algeria Leaving Morocco with heartache as well They never asked to be colonized Even the house of Ali La Pointe is gone The streets have been renamed The pain remains in the hearts of Algerians It remains in the hearts of economically marginalized Moroccans in France and Europe Who were sold lies by the French I am so sorry, Frenchmen That you cannot dump 200 bodies in the Seine like you did in 1962 Camus said that "Everything fades..save the memory" I am so sorry that I read Alistair Horne's A SAVAGE WAR OF PEACE, written in 1972 I am so sorry, France But you murdered Algerians and tortured them You murdered 100 Moroccans in the streets of Casablanca You enslaved the Magreb You prostituted its women You pushed Catholicism You ravaged a nation And now that their grandchildren demand a share of its riches You recoil from horror You had your revolution Let the OULED EL HORMA reclaim what you stole from them Let the world look at what France did a hundred and 20 years ago Let the world see how you economically abused the Algerians and the magreb Let the Americans ask questions The French accuse Americans of being killers Who started this mess? It lies in the streets of Paris and in the graves of the killers and rapists of the French armies Now Listen Paris You cannot tell the world a lie Let the Algerian martyrs speak from the heavens and name your crimes Algerians claim your lives It remains in the hearts of the massacred in Casablanca and their families And in the memories of the elderly of Morocco The page has turned BUT TELL THE WORLD WHAT THE FRENCH DID TO YOU ISAAC : K,a political leader had once predicted that France would be one day the Lebanon of Europe, his prophecy is now in action. This is quite disturbing... Noone had asked you to be the Maghrebian's attorney, we can talk better about what happened to the Maghreb under French colonialism and what is happenning right now in Paris. The French had multiple colonies and none of them had started such amplified troubles. Areb : Thank you Kathleen,It's so nice to read that people do not forgot what they did.arebmohamed@yahoo.fr aymanetus : What happening in France is prety sad .. and that no lie .. France doesn't remember that when they needed to rebuild the country they had to get people from united Maghreb and from french speaking African coutries , those people setteled down in France they had there own famillies children that are french , but the sociaty look at them as first generation of immigrant ( mean they have no education and no manners ) wich is some how the result of the poor life they had ... and now they are in Revolution ( that what made france in fire ) , Nikola Sarkuzi added that those immigrant who lives in the suburbs are just garbage ,wich is Racist even if he didn't mean it chikrea : The French are guilty of colonialism for sure but they did NOT enslave the Maghreb, they certainly did NOT prostitute its women (not sure where you got that one) and finally they did not push catholicism. I do not know of a single catholic Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian do you?They did commit horrors in the past, but they are not now, unlike America that only now is trying its luck at this colonialism thing (under the banner of freedom spreading). I, for one see what good the French did for us in spite of it all. Morocco was never a colony but rather a protectorat (a euphimism perhaps). France built our infrastructure and helped educate us. They certainly did move us forward. I am not sure where we'd be had they not come and gone.The youth that is now rebelling has good beef but violence is not the answer. They are basically like the black youth in America; they just feel marginalized despite the fact that many of them are mega stars in France from the Cinema to sports with Zidane and others. They are acting out as the blacks did in LA a short time ago. It is absolutely uncalled for. I do hope however that somethhing good does come of it.Vive la France and all peace loving people! philau : I understand poverty is a result is result of oppression, but I don`t think we should celebrate those kinds of behaviors. Let`s not celebrate violence. kwoolr : Really ChickreaNow you rewrite history.As far as France not marginilizing Moroccan women.mmmmmmmmI am personally in possesion of over 200 postcards of old Morocco. In the early years of colonization, French erotic photographers travelled to Morocco and photographed Berber women in various erotic poses and sold them throughout France as early pornography. If you are in doubt, go to ebay and google postcards and search through the thousands of postcards NAKED MOORISH GIRLS, NAKED BERBER GIRL, EROTIC FRANCE, just keep looking. You will be horrified at what early 20th century French did to Berber women, photographing them nearly naked and selling them in the streets of Paris as pornography. You apparently do not know the history of the history of women in your own country and how they were subjugated in both Algeria and Morocco under French colonization. The OULED NAILS district was set up in Algeria to service the FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION and consisted primarily of Algerian minority Kabilyes.In 1911, over 1500 berbers were killed in uprisings against the French. Berber women were kidnapped and raped by the French Foreign Legion and forced into travelling brothels, memorialized in Legion Lore.I find it to be very pathetic when you are given a platform, Mr Liberal, to condemn the acts of Colonial France, you jump to the defense of the French instead of your own people.Ya HARKI. How pathetic.No one advocates violence against anyone.I guess the 200 bodies floating and bloated in the Seine in 1962 are not a clear enough picture for you of what France has and has always been capable of doing to North Africans.I invite you to read the following news account from 2001. It is very interesting. It is to France's credit though that this idiot was stripped of his medals.Tsk tsk, ya harkiAn 83-year-old retired general went on trial yesterday for condoning the French army's use of torture and summary execution during the Algerian war of independence, and said defiantly that he "would do it again today"."I didn't enjoy it, it gave me no pleasure," he said. "But I have no regrets."General Paul Aussaresses, whose memoirs caused a furore earlier this year, may be jailed for up to five years, for his writings rather than his actions, even though he has said he personally tortured and killed 24 suspected rebels in the 1954-1962 conflict.A second world war resistance hero, Gen Aussaresses is charged with "complicity in justifying war crimes". The actual crimes are covered by an amnesty offered in the 1960s to all French soldiers who served in Algeria.He told the court yesterday that the late president François Mitterrand, who was justice minister at the time, had been informed daily of his actions by another general.Before the proceedings, Gen Aussaresses, who was stripped of his Légion d'Honneur by President Jacques Chirac and barred from wearing his army uniform earlier this year, said he was "entering this trial in serenity"."I would do it [the torture and killings] again today if it were against Osama bin Laden," he said. "These were not reprisals... It was a case of stopping actions which were being prepared for deeds that would cause the deaths of French citizens in Algeria."In his book, Special Services: Algeria 1955-57, Gen Aussaresses said that the government of the day was fully aware of those practices, and that he had only followed orders to eradicate terrorism."The best way to make a terrorist talk when he refused to say what he knew was to torture him," he wrote in one of the 19 passages singled out by the prosecution.Of the hundreds of Algerian independence fighters summarily executed on his orders, he said in another passage: "I was indifferent. They had to be killed, that's all there is to it."He and his two publishers, who are similarly charged, have called 15 witnesses, mostly former soldiers, to testify that torture and summary executions were routine and were implicitly approved by Paris.The League of Human Rights, which brought the case, sees it as a vital step towards official recognition of the crimes committed in Algeria. France has never formally acknowledged the atrocities its forces committed there.There is no reason for the innocent to be killed. But the French set themselves up for the turmoil in the steets of Paris and until they acknowledge their dirty past and mistreatment of the OULED EL HORMA, the violence will continue. They need to apologize to the MAGREB and give them jobs and economic equality and to help Moroccans, Algerians and the Tunisian children of France have exactly what French children are offered.I am not even Muslim yet I am horrified at the SCARF ban taking place in French schools. They colonized North Africa and they don't seem to care about their subjects. They got what they wanted from the OULED EL HORMA. Now they are done with them and want to make them quiet and disappear. I think I am less of a harki than you. Now run along now and tow the party line. Bash America and call us the monsters. France made messes all over North Africa and you defend them. How sad? I guess the guilty never pay. I guess the USA massacred thousands in North Africa, excuse me MILLIONS. The berbers secured the liberation of Morocco and the Moroccan people shed their blood for nothing. I guess Uncle Sam decided to walk across the magreb and I guess its our fault that Ben Bella couldn't even speak arabic in the 1960's when he tried to address Egypt. Yeah. The USA did it. You are so ....oh I just cannot say it... I just cannot..Read some books about the PIED NOIRSRead A SAVAGE WAR OF PEACE by ALISTAIR HORNEWhile your at it, why don't you ask some berbers about what they know about the French Foreign Legion from their elderly family members?Oh I forgot... The French didn't do a darn thing to deserve ANYTHING of what is happeningHave you been to Paris lately? I have. Have you been to BOBIGNY or to BARBES? Have you ever noticed or talked to a BOER and asked them about job availiabilty or how they graduate from school and because their name is Arab they cannot be employed. Their is a mercedes plant in France without one muslim arab worker. They don't have to bash arabs. They do it in economic marginilization, the systematic dehumanization of North Africans through the eradication of their culture and their language. These young men have nothing to live for. Let civil rights legislation be passed to ensure equal opportunity to Arabs and that they can have access to the same jobs. Let them speak and be heard.I never want to see anyone hurt or killed or marginilized but what is happening in Paris is the result of the marginilization of North Africans for years and years. The police force cannot massacre them and throw them into the SEINE like they did in 1962.Guess whatThe USA has nothing to do with this mess , baby. You better read some books and know your history. Your lack of investigation into the crimes of the French is showing. The French themselves are admitting to it and understanding their past. Why can't you? Because to do that would make you have to pick another monster besides the USA and that doesn't fit into your intellectual libraryHarki speederdj : WHAT A GOOD ARTICLE! I HAD TO PRINT THIS ONE OUT TO SHARE WITH OTHERS! //en.yabiladi.com/topics/history-france-north-africa-44-833671-833671.html#msg-833671 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:28:11 +0200 Phorum 5.2.15