Algeria has renewed its demand for France to compensate for the nuclear tests it conducted in its vast desert before and after independence. The case is considered among the unresolved crimes committed by colonialism, and it is one of the most sensitive issues between both countries.
Marking the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the first French nuclear explosion in the Algerian desert, on Feb. 13, 1960, Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum said in a statement on Twitter that the impacts of the tests as “catastrophic.”
“On this day in 1960, imperialist France carried out the first nuclear explosion in the Reggane region in the Algerian desert, in a process code-named ‘Gerboise Bleue’ (Blue Desert Rat), yielding a force of 70 kilotons (kt),” he said.
Algeria was and is still at the forefront of countries advocating for a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, he stressed, noting that while presiding the first UN Committee, it contributed to passing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017.
On Feb. 13, 1960, France conducted its first nuclear test in the Sahara Desert, southwest of Algeria, followed by 16 other nuclear tests in the Algerian desert in the period between 1960 and 1966.
Algerians demand financial compensation for the tests conducted, not only for the affected people and the families of the deceased but also for the damage caused to the environment and animals in the area.
In 2009, the French parliament approved a compromise bill offering compensation to the victims of nuclear tests carried out by France between 1960 and 1996, overturning decades of official failure to accept general liability for health problems suffered by those present at or near the test sites.
Under the provisions of the bill, the new compensation scheme will apply to former soldiers and civilians that developed cancers and other illnesses after exposure to radiation from nuclear tests carried out in Algeria and French Polynesia.
Then Defense Minister Herve Morin had earmarked an initial 10 million euros as part of a compensation scheme for victims of radiation, many of whom have been campaigning for years for recognition from the state.
The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) has earlier urged authorities “to pressure France to clean up the areas where the nuclear tests were conducted from nuclear radiation.”
Remarkably, the explosions had been considered “crimes against humanity.”
