There is something particularly disgraceful about France's short-shrift of its veteran indigènes. Exploited at home, the native colonials were also exploited abroad to fight -- and die in great numbers -- to restore France, make her whole, free her. France's war-time army numbered 550,000 men, half of whom were recruited or conscripted from French colonies. Yet where a native French veteran receives €690 a month, a Moroccan veteran receives less than one-tenth that amount.
Although equal pensions are a matter of justice, successive French governments have pled poverty as the veterans have died off. Over the years redress has been beaten out by important vanity projects: Musée du Quai Branly €230M (2006); Louvre Pyramid and renovations €784M (1989); Centre Georges Pompidou ₣993M (1972), renovations ₣576M (1996-2000); et al. The cost of redress for the 83,000 surviving veterans is today put at €148M.
French justice having failed them, indigènes relied on fabled French gratitude. Of course, they were screwed.
APPEL POUR L'ÉGALITÉ DES DROITS
ENTRE LES ANCIENS COMBATTANTS
FRANCAIS ET COLONIAUXMonsieur le Président de la République,
1 Français « invalide de guerre » vaut 3 Sénégalais et 11 Marocains...
1 Français « ancien combattant pensionné » vaut 2,5 Sénégalais et 7,5 Marocains...
1 Français ayant été incorporé « 90 jours dans une unité combattante » vaut 5,2 Maliens, 7,3 Algériens et 26 Cambodgiens...Ce n'est pas une histoire du temps des colonies, c'est la situation actuelle des anciens combattants « INDIGÈNES», dans 25 pays de l’ancien empire colonial français… Un des plus grands scandales de notre République.
[AN APPEAL FOR EQUAL RIGHTS
BETWEEN FRENCH AND COLONIAL VETERANSMr. President,
1 French "war invalid" is worth 3 Senegaleses and 11 Morrocans...
1 French "pensioned veteran" is worth 2½ Senegaleses and 7½ Morrocans...
1 French mustered "90 days in a combat unit" is worth 5½ Malians, 7⅓ Algerians and 26 Kampucheans...It is not a history from colonial times, it is the current situation of "INDIGENOUS" veterans in 25 countries of the former French colonial empire... One of the greatest scandals of our Republic.]
From the petition for pension equity for indigène colonial veterans
FILM SETTLES ACCOUNT FOR FORGOTTEN WAR VETERANS
PARIS September 26, 2006 (Times Online) - A new film which describes the suffering of France’s Arab and African troops in the Second World War has moved President Chirac to restore full pensions to the 80,000 surviving veterans.
... The excitement over the film [Indigènes, Days of Glory in English] is part of a general review in France of its conduct towards its former colonials and the failure to assimilate their descendants, some of whom rioted last year on their ghetto-like housing estates.... The film shows how the colonial troops were abused and humiliated by white officers as they defended France [and] exposes the way that 250,000 colonial servicemen were used as frontline cannon fodder, suffering a quarter of all French losses between 1939 and 1945. They were neglected after the withdrawals from Africa, including Algeria, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Their pensions were frozen in 1959 and the surviving 80,000 receive no more than one third of the £310 a month that white ex-servicemen receive.
... Successive governments have promised to make amends, but the high costs have deterred them from more than minor gestures. M Chirac is said to have been moved when he watched Indigènes last week, said Hamlaoui Mekachera, the Minister for Veterans, who is of Algerian origin.
“Jacques Chirac . . . wants to make it fair between our countrymen and our foreign comrades. There is an obvious injustice. We must put an end to it,” M Mekachera said.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie* commented:
This represents a relatively expensive cost, but I think it is worth it for the recognition that we owe them.
Oh, that's mighty white of you, Mdm. le Ministre.
* Former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.
PFFT (What is this?): A grateful nation remembers her own 0 | Justice on the cheap 4 | Rayonnement français 0
