For two days, Algiers' Moslems watched silently as European mobs shouted
for “Algrie Franaise” and tangled with security forces.
Then, in their frustrated rage, the Europeans went too far. Squads of
toughs plunged into the Moslem quarters. They beat up passers-by and
forced shopkeepers to join the general strike ordered by the extremist
Front de l'Algrie Franaise. Flagged Spires. Suddenly, the Moslems' long restraint snapped. Screaming
like men who have been too long silent, Moslem mobs flooded the narrow
lanes of the casbah. From under thin mattresses and floor boards came
hundreds of forbidden flags of the F.L.N. rebels—green-and-white
banners bearing a red crescent and star. In bright green paint, slogans
were splashed on any and every convenlent wall: “The F.L.N.
Forever,” “Long Live Ferhat Abbas,” “Long Live
Moslem Algeria.” It was as if a dam had burst. In the slum suburbs
of Belcourt and Clos Salembier, from the tar-paper shacks of
Maison-Carre, Moslems erupted in wild demonstrations. Rebel flags
blossomed on dozens of minarets. Cars belonging to Europeans were
smashed and burned, shops and cafes turned into a shambles. A luckless
policeman was caught by the crowd and his throat cut. Nine other
Europeans were beaten to death, burned alive or fatally stabbed with
sharpened screwdrivers. The government had massed 30,000 police and soldiers in Algiers to
handle rioting by European mobs; they could not handle the' outpouring
of Moslems. On Sunday afternoon, a paratroop regiment arrived from the
back country, where it had been battling the rebel F.L.N. Rushed to the
Moslem quarter of Belcourt, the paratroops took one look at the
flag-waving Moslems and then advanced, firing submachine guns from the
hip. Explained the paratroop colonel: “My men have been fighting
the rebels in the Aurs Mountains. They are amazed to come up against
the very same rebel flag in the heart of Algiers.” As the guns
spoke and Moslems died, frantic European women on nearby balconies
screamed encouragement to the paratroops: “Kill them! Kill
them!” Defiant Orphans. In Algiers and Oran and Bne, 127 Moslems
died and hundreds more were wounded. European gangs joined in the hunt
and dropped stray Moslems with pistols and iron bars.
But still the green-and-white flags waved, and the Moslem crowds,
scattered by police charges, re-formed as soon as the police withdrew.
From rooftops and windows, Moslem women cheered on their men with
high-pitched cries of “Yu! Yu! Yu!” One woman shouted at a
group of paratroops: “Cowards! You were thrown out of Indo-China,
you were thrown out of Tunisia, you were thrown out of Morocco. You
will be thrown out of Algeria.
Here, all you can do is make war on women and children!”
