France admits to systematic torture during Algeria’s war of independence

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday admitted for the first time to France’s systematic use of torture in its former colony Algeria and its responsibility for the disappearance of a dissident mathematician in 1957.

“It is important for this history to be known, to be looked at with lucidity and courage,” Mr Macron said.

Mr Macron, the first French leader born after Algeria’s independence in 1962, on Thursday visited the widow of Maurice Audin, a young mathematician, communist and anti-colonial activist who was arrested in Algiers more than 60 years ago.

Audin, a member of the settler community who supported the fight against colonial rule, was tortured and killed by French authorities, according to a witness.

The French presidency’s statement admitted a legal framework that allowed the armed forces to commit such acts. Mr Macron said the state will open its archives to allow the search for information about others who disappeared during the war.

The presidency also promised that it would stop blocking access and allow historians to investigate the subject freely.

Algerian rebels began their fight for independence in 1954 and by 1958 the French army had largely crushed the uprising. But the massacre of Algerian civilians by French forces and their use of torture undercut public support for the war, prompting the president, Charles de Gaulle, to begin secret talks with rebel leaders that ultimately led to independence.