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Oran massacre of 1962
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oran massacre of 1962 was a massacre in Oran, Algeria on July 5, 1962, after the end of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). Oran had the highest percentage of European population in the Maghreb region (47%).
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The July 5, 1962 massacre took place within the context of the end of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), which had became more and more violent throughout the years.
Following the referendum on independence of Algeria and the March 18, 1962 Evian Accords, which guaranteed the rights and safety of Europeans under the new government, the OAS far-right group started a campaign of terror and open rebellion against the French military forces, which it considered as an "occuping power" [1].
June 7, 1962 marked a summum of the "scorched earth" policy followed by the OAS, with the OAS Delta Commando burning Algiers's Library and its 60,000 volumes, and blowing up in Oran the townhall, the municipal library and four schools. Despite the OAS's campaign, in May, each day 8 to 10 thousand pieds-noirs were leaving Algeria, while Paris' decision to loosen control on the Moroccan border and let the ALN, the military wing of the FLN liberation movement, enter Algeria accelerated the Pieds-Noirs' exodus.
Starting in April 1962, the pieds-noirs (Algerian Jews or Algerians of European origin) started leaving Algeria: they were confronted with the choice between "the suitcase or the coffin", exile or death, so they fled their country for an unknown metropolitan France. Meanwhile, the OAS desperately tried to stop this "exodus", putting in action a terror campaign (killing in Oran, each day, 10 to 15 Algerians in May 1962 [2]). It is in this context of violence that on the morning of July 5, 1962, hundreds of armed people came down to European areas of the city, attacking European civilians. The violence lasted several hours, including lynching and acts of torture, until French Gendarmerie came out. Estimates concerning casualties varies widely: according to numbers given by Dr. Mostefa Naït, director of the Oran hospital center, 95 persons including 20 Europeans were killed (13 stabbed to death), and 161 people injured[2]. The massacre happened without being stopped either by the Algerian police nor by the 18 000 French troops of General Katz still in the city at that time. Orders from Paris were "do not move", leaving Europeans from Oran alone and unarmed. The FLN obtained control of the city in the following days.
- ^ See Le Figaro, March 24-25 1962 (see la fusillade de la rue d’Isly, l’exode des pieds-noirs, Oran, Human Rights League, March 2002
- ^ a b la fusillade de la rue d’Isly, l’exode des pieds-noirs, Oran, Human Rights League, March 2002