Fanatic inspired Day of the Jackal
Jean-Jacques Susini, terrorist and politician: b Algeria, July 30, 1933; m (1) Marie Antoinette, (2) Micheline; d July 3, 2017, aged 83.
In Fred Zinnemann’s adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day of the Jackal, the opening sequence of the film depicts an attempt on the life of the French president Charles de Gaulle by members of the OAS, a terrorist organisation that fought to keep Algeria in French hands.
The OAS believed the granting of independence by the French government was an act of treason and that de Gaulle was the supreme traitor. As the Citroen carrying the French president and his wife is driving through Paris, it is raked with machinegun fire.
A voiceover summarises the attack: ‘‘In all, more than 140 shots were fired. Several bullets pierced the president’s car. One came within an inch of his head. But, as if by a miracle, neither he nor anyone else was hurt.’’
The rest of the story is fiction, but the account of the assassination attempt is essentially accurate – although more than 180 shots were fired, leading de Gaulle to conclude, contemptuously: ‘‘They shoot like pigs.’’ One of the organisers of the attack in Petit-Clamart on August 22, 1962, was Jean-Jacques Susini, a leader of the OAS.
The organisation had been founded the previous year by disaffected members of the French army – most notably General Raoul Salan, who had led an unsuccessful putsch in Algeria – alongside militant European settlers like Susini.
In his book A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, Alistair Horne wrote: ‘‘Susini, the dedicated young Right-winger ... provided the political brains of the OAS, with his pale fanatic’s eyes, his rigid comportment and incisive speech.’’
The OAS – the Organisation Armee Secrete or ‘‘Secret Army’’ – was established after de Gaulle announced his intention to grant independence. In May 1961, talks began between the government and the National Liberation Front (FLN), which had been fighting for independence.
However, the OAS set out to disrupt the process. Their elite troops, the Delta Commando, began a campaign of bombings and killings directed at civil servants, police, government officials and Algeria’s Muslim population. About 2000 people were murdered in 12 months.
In France there were attacks on Left-wing intellectuals and politicians and on newspapers and government buildings. The campaign served only to reinforce support for de Gaulle.
In May 1962, Susini was put in charge of propaganda, although his duties were more extensive. ‘‘I made all the internal political decisions,’’ he said.
An associate of Susini had vivid memories of his fanaticism. ‘‘On a side street in the centre of Algiers there was an Arab who sold eggs for a living,’’ he recalled. ‘‘Every day you would see him there. One day he was blown to smithereens. When I ran into Susini that evening, he exclaimed: ‘Well, are we going to [use tactics like the FLN], yes or no? The eggseller was the first to go. Now they’ll understand’.’’
Jean-Jacques Susini’s greatgrandfather had left Corsica for Algeria because of a vendetta, and established a farm in the shadow of the Atlas mountains. ‘‘I was brought up under the old Corsican principles – family, work, loyalty,’’ Susini said.
His father, Antoine-AngeMarie, was a communist railway worker who supported independence, but Jean-Jacques saw little of his father or his mother, Philomena. He was close to his maternal grandmother, Thomasine Palmieri, whom he recalled weeping as she listened to Mussolini on the radio. ‘‘She is without a doubt the woman I loved most in the world,’’ he said. ‘‘She taught me everything. With her, I started my studies at the age of three.’’
He studied medicine in Strasbourg and Lyon, but in 1958 returned to Algeria. He attended Algiers University, where he was noted for his intellectual agility, organisational ability and command of rhetoric. In 1959, he was elected head of the national students association. He was a compelling orator.
Convinced that de Gaulle was betraying France, Susini and another student leader, Pierre Lagaillarde, staged an insurrection in Algiers in 1960 that became known as ‘‘the week of barricades’’. The pieds-noirs – Algerians of European descent – occupied the streets and seized government buildings. In France, a young National Assembly deputy, Jean-Marie Le Pen, called for a similar domestic uprising.
Susini was arrested and interned at La Sante prison in Paris, where he was visited by Le Pen. Granted parole, he fled to Madrid, where the OAS was set up. ‘‘There was already talk of preparing an attack against de Gaulle and soon a first attempt was made in the Basque country, where shells were supposed to explode when the presidential car was passing,’’ he recalled. ‘‘It failed, and Salan exclaimed, as he did several times later, ‘This duck is still alive!’’’
In June 1962, an accord was signed between the French government and the proindependence FLN. The OAS declared a ‘‘scorched earth’’ policy to deny facilities to the new regime. The campaign reached its climax on June 7 when Algiers library, containing 60,000 books, was burnt down, and the town hall was blown up.
Susini met moderate elements of the FLN in an attempt to guarantee the safety of the piedsnoirs, fearing that an exodus would harm the country. ‘‘I threw myself into the lion’s mouth as it was the last card to play,’’ he said.
He signed an accord, but it had little effect. In the OAS stronghold of Oran there was more destruction. As the city burnt, OAS commandos robbed six banks, boarded trawlers loaded with guns and money and sailed into exile.
Condemned to death in absentia after Petit-Clamart, Susini fled to Italy. He organised another attempt on de Gaulle’s life, near Toulon, in 1964, when a bomb left in a pot failed to go off. He received a second death sentence in absentia, but was given an amnesty four years later and returned to France.
Susini completed his medical studies in 1978, and gained a further qualification in economics. He published a book on inflation and ran a security company. He wrote the first volume of a history of the OAS, but subsequent instalments never appeared. He received a second amnesty in 1987.
Ten years later he was a candidate for the National Front, led by old friend Le Pen. He stood in north Marseilles, a district of high unemployment and immigration. ‘‘I am here to defend ... France,’’ he said. He lost that election, but did serve as a local councillor.
He never returned to Algeria. ‘‘Often, I was tempted to go back, but I resisted,’’ he said. ‘‘I did not want to be saddened.’’ He had no regrets, though. ‘‘I sacrificed everything, but I had a unique life,’’ he said. ‘‘I defended the soil.’’ – The Times
''Susini, the dedicated young Rightwinger ... provided the political brains of the OAS ...''