Opinion

Allison Morris: It takes bravery to confront the uncomfortable truths of our past

French president Emmanuel Macron said his country was responsible for torture during the Algeria conflict
French president Emmanuel Macron said his country was responsible for torture during the Algeria conflict French president Emmanuel Macron said his country was responsible for torture during the Algeria conflict

A week ago, in an unprecedented move, Emmanuel Macron officially acknowledged that France had carried out systematic torture during Algeria’s independence war.

The 1954-62 war claimed 1.5 million Algerian lives as French forces slaughtered independence fighters in the then colony.

It was a brave, landmark admission by Macon about the conflict which ended 56 years ago but remains shrouded in secrecy, with generational denials by successive administrations about the conduct of the French army. Macron, is the first French president to have been born after the war.

He has now said France were responsible for torture during the Algeria conflict, and must now face the past with “courage and lucidity”.

In a first step the family of mathematician Maurice Audin, a Communist pro-independence activist who disappeared in 1957, were told he had “died under torture stemming from the system instigated while Algeria was part of France”.

France will now open the previously secret archives to historians, families and organisations seeking the truth about the large number of disappeared civilians and soldiers, both French and Algerian, whose bodies have never been found.

The atrocities committed by its troops have remained a taboo subject in French society, the contents of the archives will be uncomfortable for the government.

Not everyone has welcomed the new found openness. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, previously named Front National said: "What is the point of the president opening old wounds by bringing up the Maurice Audin case?".

And her reasons may be more personal than political, the youngest daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, a former paratrooper who served in Algeria and has been forced in the past to deny involvement in torture.

Audin was 25 when he was arrested at his home by French paratroopers, his widow, Josette, was told 10 days later that the mathematician had escaped while being transferred between jails.

Josette never remarried and dedicated her life to searching for the truth about her husband, writing hundreds of letters lobbying anyone she would think of. In 2014, Francois Hollande finally acknowledged that her husband died in detention and was secretly buried.

The search for his remains, and those of hundreds of others, will now begin.

This might all sound very remote, nothing to do with us or our lives.

But as you read this in a remote bog in Co Monaghan a team of experts are searching for the remains of Columba McVeigh.

The 19-year-old, from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, was kidnapped in November 1975, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA.

The teenager is one of 16 people known to have been abducted and buried by republicans, 15 by the IRA, one by the INLA.

All but four have been recovered.

The IRA gave over a list of names in 1999 as part of the fledgling peace process. Joe Lynskey’s name was not on that list, the IRA only admitted involvement in his death many years later after this paper investigated his abduction.

Giving over the dark secrets of the past is never easy, never straightforward, rarely happens without pressure.

I will admit I had not heard of Josette Audin until this week, but her story resonated with me.

She campaigned, lobbied and investigated her husband’s murder even when that put her up against a hostile state.

It is a story I’ve heard and reported on many times before, from victims whose loved ones were disappeared to those murdered in atrocities at the hands of the state or paramilitaries, who still don’t have answers who still don’t have apologies.

Many of the archives relating to the conflict here remain classified under the guise of national security.

As we near the end of the consultation on the past I, like many others, question the viability of the well intentioned, but arguably unworkable mechanisms proposed.

Truth and acceptance of guilt from all sides will always be difficult to achieve as those with involvement seek to maximise the role of others while playing down or continuing to excuse their own.

What if, like in France, the archives were to be thrown open?

If people were to face the uncomfortable truths, live with the embarrassment and shame that might cause but ultimately free the next generation, that would indeed require bravery.

Vous etes un homme courageux, President Macron, unfortunately I’m not sure we’ve anyone willing to replicate that bravery in these islands, at least not yet.