Harki
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"Harki" (from the Arabic "Harka" = troop or band of soldiers) was the the generic Algerian term for the troops of Muslim Algerians fighting in the French Army, during the Algerian War of Independence from 1954 to 1962. The Harkis contributed with the French "Armée d'Afrique" to the wars against Germany in 1870 and 1914/1918 5World War I) as well as WWII were they numbered more than 200 000 and contributed largely to the Liberation of France from the Nazis and the war in Italy and Germany. Since Algerian Independence, the term has been used in a derogatory way by today's Algerian Government. According to France, in 1962 there were 236,000 Algerian Muslims fighting for the French army; some estimates suggest that, with their families, they may have numbered as much as 1 million, but 400,000 is more commonly cited.
As Algeria was part of France ("Departements") and not a colony, and all had French citizenship, many muslim Algerians enrolled in the Harkas during the Algerian civil war as they considered the independentists as terrorists. For the independists, they were considered traitors. However, at Independence, all guarantees were given by both signatories of the cease fire ("Accords d'Evian" signed by France and the Algerian GPRA), that no one, Harki or Pied-Noir would suffer any reprisal after independence for any action during the civil war. In 1962, strict orders were given by the French government to its officers to forbid the harkis to cross the Mediterranean and flee to Metropolitan France like the pieds-noirs did. However, many officers of the French army, disgusted by what they saw as a start of massacres, decided to disobey and tried to allow the harkis under their command, as well as their families, to leave for Metropolitan France. Around 91,000 harkis were able to flee to France. French historians estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 harkis were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria, sometimes after they, their families, wives and children had been tortured, gang-raped, burned alive, boiled in hot oil, or suffered mutilation to their genitals or breasts.
As with the pieds-noirs, France refused to recognize the problem as it was living proof of the failure of the peace treaty. Nothing had been planned for the harkis, and the government refused to recognize their right to stay in France for many years. They were hidden and made to live in "temporary" internment camps surrounded by barbed-wire. Outrage at France's treatment of the harkis, who had always been loyal to France, finally led to the French government freeing them from the camps in the 1970s and 1980s. Recently, the French government has publicly acknowledged the suffering they went through, along with that of the pieds-noirs, and there are many active harkis associations in France who work together with the pieds-noirs associations to keep the memory of these events alive. Today, the Algerian government still does not recognize the Harkis as French citizens and does not authorize them to vist their birth places and members of family left behind in Algeria.fr:Harki