THIS WEEK Algeria celebrates the 50th anniversary of the eruption of its revolution which led to the liberation of the country from French occupation. The heroic Algerian revolutionary struggle against France served as a beacon for other oppressed peoples suffering under colonialism in Africa and Asia. Marking celebrations in the Algerian capital Algiers, Algerian President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika spoke about an especially bloody, brutal yet "grand struggle against the occupying forces". From the infamous massacre of Algerians on 8 May 1945 to the early morning hours of 1 November 1954 when Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) guerrillas launched attacks against military installations, police posts, warehouses, communications facilities and public utilities, the Algerian resistance moved from strength to strength. From the FLN's headquarters in Cairo a proclamation was broadcast calling on Algerians to join in a united national struggle for the "restoration of the Algerian state, sovereign, democratic and social, within the framework of the principles of Islam". The Algerian War of National Liberation had officially started. By 1956 Algiers was dragged into the conflict with the execution of FLN guerrillas Ahmed Zabane and Abdul-Qader Ferradj and a terrorist bombing in the Casbah, attributed to French settlers better known as pieds noirs. This was avenged by FLN bombings which saw the drafting of large numbers of French troops to the capital in 1957 to fight in the "Battle of Algiers". The turning point arrived when the FLN instigated a nationwide strike, timed to coincide with an important UN debate on the Algerian crisis. French paratroopers took advantage of the strike to identify FLN supporters, arresting and torturing hundreds of thousands of Algerians in order to flush out FLN militants. The Algiers conflict finally concluded with the arrest of FLN leader Saadi Yacef and the death of Ali La Pointe in September 1957. Yet while losing the Battle of Algiers the FLN won the greater support of Algerian people. By 1960, demonstrations for independence had resumed in Algiers and within two years the French president, Charles de Gaulle, became convinced of the futility of further incessant fighting and re-opened negotiations with the FLN. Negotiations led to a cease-fire on 19 March 1962, with independence finally proclaimed on 3 July of the same year.
