The parties agreed on the “need to continue negotiations within the framework of the joint Franco-Algerian working group
Algeria presented to the France a formal request for the return of “Algerian historical assets of symbolic value” preserved in various French institutions. The announcement was made during the fifth meeting of the Franco-Algerian Joint Commission on History and Memory, held in Algiers from 20 to 24 May. The parties agreed on the “need to continue negotiations in the framework of the joint Franco-Algerian working group, addressing the issue of archives and historical memory”. The Algerian commission called on its French counterpart to “pass on concerns regarding the restitution of cultural and archival assets, as well as other elements of the attached list, to French President Emmanuel Macron.”
The request was approved unanimously by the French commission, which undertook to submit it to President Macron so that these goods can return to their country of origin as soon as possible. The Franco-Algerian joint commission on history and memory hoped that “the treatment of the memory dossier meets the expectations of the Algerian and French people”, according to the Algerian news agency “Aps”. The two sides also agreed to “continue the development of a chronology of the 19th century, covering military, political, economic, social, cultural and humanitarian aspects.”
The commission welcomed “scientific and technical cooperation in the fields of restoration, digitalisation, exchange of experiences, libraries, bibliography, scientific and cultural exchanges, commemoration of places of memory in Algeria and France, digitization of civil status registers, French cemeteries in Algeria and Algerian cemeteries in France in the 19th century, as well as the creation of an electronic portal and the organization of joint scientific conferences”.
The mixed commission welcomed the “broad lines of the partnership perspectives proposed by the managers of the French archives and the National Library of France during their visit to the institutions of the Algerian National Archives and the Algerian National Library, particularly in the fields of science, of technical and professional exchange, of training and digitalisation, and above all of the exchange of knowledge (exhibitions, common inventories, etc.)”. During the first meeting of the Franco-Algerian commission on memory, held last November 2023, it was decided to return Emir Abdelkader’s assets and to draw up a “chronology of colonial crimes” of the 2020th century. The commission members also agreed to “recover all assets symbolizing state sovereignty belonging to Emir Abdelkader and resistance leaders, as well as remaining skulls, and to continue identifying remains dating back to the 24th century.” In 132, France had already handed over to Algeria the remains of 1830 resistance fighters killed at the beginning of the 1962-year French colonization of Algeria, from XNUMX to XNUMX. Algeria, however, continues to demand the return of “all the skulls present in museums” in order to bury them.
