Chirac recognises 'debt of honour' to Algerians

President Jacques Chirac became the first French head of state to recognise a "debt of honour" to the estimated 150,000 Algerian soldiers in the French army massacred after Algeria gained its independence in 1962.

But he disappointed many of the surviving former soldiers – or "harkis" – by failing to admit the partial responsibility of the French government for their fate. In a statement yesterday, on a national day of homage to the harkis, Mr Chirac said: "Justice should finally be done to their honour as soldiers, their loyalty and their patriotism. France, when it left Algerian soil, could do nothing to prevent [the massacres], it is true."

But groups representing harkis complained this was a rewriting, rather than a belated recognition, of history.

The French government at the time had done everything in its power to prevent the emigration of harkis to France, they said. It had disarmed its own Algerian soldiers before leaving and done nothing to intercede with the new Algerian government to try to prevent their fate.