Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, September 2009. / Electronic version restricted until 21st September 2012.

En France, l’expression de "deuxième génération" de Harkis renvoie à une réalité sociologique et historique pour le moins surprenante, car un statut administratif serait devenu une caractéristique héréditaire. Le fil d’Ariane de cette étude est la transmission d'une identité. Cette transmission se traduit publiquement par les associations dont les membres s’engagent dans un conflit latent avec les pouvoirs publics. Ainsi, la relation entre les pouvoirs publics français et la population harkie de 1962 à nos jours constitue l'épine dorsale de notre recherche. Après une présentation des débats historiographiques, la gestion étatique de cette population, ses effets matériels et symboliques sont examinés à l’échelle départementale. Le terrain d’investigation choisi est le Lot-et-Garonne, où se situent le Centre d'Accueil des Rapatriés d'Algérie à Bias, et le Centre d’Accueil des Français d’Indochine sur la commune voisine de Sainte-Livrade. Leur approche comparative aide à l’analyse du traitement par l'Etat de cette question sociopolitique dans une France fraîchement décolonisée. L’administration des familles harkies lot-et-garonnaises s’articule autour de trois phases : 1- de 1962 jusqu’au milieu des années 1970, celle-ci se caractérise par une certaine improvisation et une gestion de l’urgence ; 2 - la première révolte de 1975 ouvre la seconde période marquée par le passage d’une question coloniale à une question d’immigration avec une réelle recherche de solutions ; 3 - la rébellion de 1991 inaugure la troisième phase durant laquelle les dirigeants instaurent une politique basée sur un accompagnement social renforcé et une réparation historique. Ce dispositif entérine la double étiquette de la population harkie qui forme une communauté socio-historique singulière. / In France, the expression “second generation” of Harkis is a surprising sociological and historical reality, because an administrative status would become a hereditary characteristic. The main theme of this study is the transmission of an identity. This transmission is publicly conveyed by the associations whose members are in conflict with the authorities. Thus, the relation between the French authorities and the Harki population from1962 to nowadays composes the backbone of our research. After a presentation of the historiographical debates, the management by the French State of this population, its material and symbolic effects are examined on a departmental scale. The chosen place of investigation is Lot-et-Garonne, where the Reception Center for the Repatriated Settlers from Algeria in Bias (or CARA) and the Reception Center for the French people of Indochina on the nearby municipality of Sainte-Livrade (or CAFI) are located. Their comparative approach helps in the analysis of the treatment by the State of this sociopolitical question in newly decolonized France. The management of Harki families in Lot-et-Garonne can be studied according to three periods: 1 - from 1962 until the middle of the 1970’ this management is characterized by a certain improvisation and a sense of urgency; 2 - the first revolt of 1975 opens the second period which is marked by the passage from a colonial question to a question of immigration with a real research of solutions; 3 - the rebellion of 1991 inaugurates the third phase in the course of which the leaders establish a policy based on an intensified social accompaniment and a historic repair. This plan confirms the double label of the Harki population which forms a singular socio-historical community.

Focusing on the legacies of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), this thesis challenges the perception that this was the ‘war without a name’ by exploring the ways in which memories have been preserved, mobilised, and transmitted by those who experienced the conflict, but who have generally operated under the radar of public consciousness. In particular, it examines the pieds-noirs, the former European settlers of Algeria, and the harkis, Algerians who fought for the French as auxiliaries during the war. Finding their lives in Algeria untenable upon independence, both populations migrated en masse to France where they have organised collectively as diaspora communities to challenge the hegemony of official narratives in order to legitimate their own interpretations of this contentious past. The purpose of such an investigation is to re-evaluate the conventional historical periodisation of a ‘forgotten’ war that made a dramatic return to public attention during the 1990s by revealing a continual presence of memory and commemorative activity within these communities. Through consultation of a wide range of sources, including extensive use of previously neglected audiovisual material, the historical recollections of these two communities are reconstructed in detail and examined from a comparative perspective. This thesis also seeks to analyse and historicize the present guerres de mémoire phenomenon whereby as the public profile of the war has risen in recent years, the different historical interpretations held by groups such as the pieds-noirs and harkis have increasingly come into open conflict, particularly over the issue of commemoration with each seeking to see their version of the past enshrined in official rituals and monuments. Finally, the thesis offers new historical context intended to contribute to enhancing understanding of the ongoing process by which France continues to ‘face up’ to its colonial past and deal with the complex contemporary legacies of this era.

Cette thèse porte sur les missions du Comité international de la Croix Rouge (CICR) pendant la guerre d’Algérie et ses suites. Le CICR intervient, d’une part, dans le cadre de guerres opposant des États et, d’autre part, en cas de conflit armé non international afin de tenter d’assurer le respect des règles humanitaires. Au cours des « évènements » algériens, les arrestations massives de membres et militants du Front de libération nationale (FLN) finissent par saturer les prisons et contribuent à la création de centres d’assignation. Par ailleurs, dès l’indépendance de l’Algérie, des milliers de supplétifs de l’armée française sont internés dans des camps, puis incarcérés pour nombre d’entre eux. L’objectif de ce travail doctoral est l’étude des principales initiatives entreprises par le CICR afin de faire appliquer quelques règles du droit humanitaire aux personnes concernées, pendant les sept années et demi de guérilla et après l’indépendance algérienne. Il est essentiellement question de prisons et de camps d’internement où les délégués contrôlent les conditions matérielles, le traitement et la discipline appliqués aux nationalistes et, plus tard, aux Européens pro-Algérie française arrêtés à partir du début de l’année 1961 ainsi qu’aux anciens supplétifs, de février à août 1963. Il s’agit également d’actions mises en place par le CICR afin d’accéder aux prisonniers français aux mains du FLN. Ce travail aborde également, dans une moindre mesure, diverses actions d’aide humanitaire en direction des populations réfugiées au Maroc ou en Tunisie et des personnes déplacées puis reléguées par l’armée française dans des camps de regroupement. / This thesis examines the missions of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during the Algerian War and its aftermath. The ICRC intervenes both in wars between states and in non-international armed conflicts, in an attempt to ensure the respect of humanitarian rules. During the “events” in Algeria, mass arrests of members and militants of the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front) led to overcrowding in the prisons and was a factor in the establishment of internment camps. Immediately after independence, thousands of Muslim auxiliaries in the French army were interned in camps; many were subsequently imprisoned. This study looks at the main initiatives taken by the ICRC to ensure that the rules of humanitarian law were applied to the people involved during the seven and a half year of guerrilla warfare and after Algeria’s independence. It focuses on prisons and internment camps in which its delegates inspected material conditions and the treatment and discipline applied to nationalists and, later, to Europeans known to be pro French Algeria, who were arrested from the beginning of 1961, and former auxiliaries, interned between February and August 1963. It also examines initiatives taken by the ICRC to gain access to French prisoners in the hands of the FLN and, to a lesser degree, various humanitarian actions to help refugees in Morocco and Tunisia as well as people forcibly displaced by the French army and grouped together in camps.