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France secretly used chemical weapons against independence fighters during the Algerian War. Newly evaluated archive material, eyewitnesses, and experts document the extent, background, and consequences of this warfare.
Original title: Algérie, sections armes spéciales
Director: Claire Billet
Original title: Algérie, sections armes spéciales
Director: Claire Billet
Categoria
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AprendizadoTranscrição
00:14Amar Agun
00:56Amar Agun
01:00Amar Agun
01:29We had green drool at the corners of our mouths
01:32and we fell one after the other.
01:42My name is Mohamed Lavachi.
01:46I was 12 when it all happened.
01:49When they fired, it was like truckloads of sand were falling on us.
01:59People began coughing, shouting, crying.
02:03It was chaos.
02:06We couldn't hear or see anything.
02:10I heard my uncle shouting and my father telling him,
02:14Recite the Shahad Aish.
02:17My uncle was suffocating.
02:19He was asthmatic.
02:20He died there.
02:22He shouted, and then silence.
02:31In 1959, Amar Agoun and Mohamed Lavachi survived an attack
02:37that would remain hidden for decades.
02:40During the Algerian War of Independence,
02:43French forces used chemical agents
02:45in discriminately harming both fighters and civilians.
03:05A generation had already experienced the horrors of similar weapons in the First World War.
03:13Starting in 1915, Germany, as well as France and its allies,
03:18used huge amounts of chlorine,
03:20phosgene and mustard gas.
03:24More than a million soldiers suffered from exposure.
03:28Nearly 100,000 died.
03:31It was the beginning of modern chemical warfare.
03:40Chemical weapons are associated with poison and painful death.
03:44In Roman times, there was already the idea that wars are waged with weapons, not poisons.
03:51Amis bella, non venenis geruntur.
03:53And so, since antiquity, the use of poison, or in today's terms, chemical weapons,
03:59is prohibited by international law.
04:01The public is also very against it.
04:04It provoked an extremely strong aversion from the public opinion.
04:12Before the end of World War I,
04:15the International Committee of the Red Cross urged warring nations
04:18to stop wielding this barbaric invention.
04:22In 1925, more than 30 countries signed the Geneva Protocol,
04:27banning the use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare.
04:33France played a leading role
04:35and became the first to ratify.
04:39The treaty stated such weapons were justly condemned
04:43by the general opinion of the civilized world.
04:47Yet nations retained the right to make them.
04:56There was a risk that other countries will acquire chemical weapons,
05:00and so some of them reserved the right to retaliate in kind
05:04if somebody else uses chemical weapons against them,
05:07but essentially all of them
05:09prepared for the possibility of chemical weapons
05:12to be used in a future war.
05:15So, the United States had a big chemical weapons program,
05:18Britain had one, the Soviet Union built one up
05:21with the support of Germany,
05:22France had a program, and many other countries.
05:25So, most of the European countries had some capability,
05:28and the bigger countries,
05:29all of them, I think, had a significant capability.
05:33France kept very quiet about what it was doing in this field,
05:36so there is less public information available,
05:39and some other countries kept equally quiet.
05:45Officially, these weapons were condemned and banned.
05:49While France continued to stockpile,
05:52there is no mention of their use.
05:54On the matter of the Algerian war,
05:56French officials declined to comment.
05:59Only one, a former defense minister, agreed.
06:11I cannot see, over the past half-century,
06:14any situations in which France
06:15would have used chemical weapons.
06:20I think each country has difficulty
06:22in taking responsibility for the shocking
06:24or questionable elements of its past,
06:27And we cannot escape that.
06:31But written records reveal a different story.
06:34Preserved in France's archives are a trove of orders,
06:38military reports, and war diaries.
06:53Historian Christophe Le Fay spent seven years
06:56digging up documents related to the use
06:58of chemical weapons in the Algerian war.
07:01Some have been declassified in France's
07:04National Overseas Archives.
07:07But others remain impossible to access.
07:15I applied for access to the archives
07:19on chemical warfare in Algeria.
07:22My first request was refused.
07:24Another request for archival material was refused.
07:28Refused once again.
07:32Incommunicable archives.
07:35What I'm up against is the heritage code.
07:38I'm told the archives contained in these boxes
07:41will enable you to design or construct,
07:44locate or use weapons of mass destruction.
07:48As if, for example, there'd be a unit's logbook
07:51in the archives.
07:53And we'd find the plan for a chemical weapon
07:56or an instruction manual that explains
07:59how to use this chemical weapon and so on.
08:02It's ridiculous.
08:03We're being prevented from seeing
08:04what the Algerian war was really about.
08:17In 1954, FLN, Algeria's National Liberation Front,
08:22launched a wave of coordinated attacks.
08:25After more than 120 years under French colonial rule,
08:30it was the first decisive move to end the occupation.
08:33Their strategy was guerrilla warfare.
08:44France scrambled to maintain order
08:47with the then-Intérieur Minister François Mitterrand
08:50making this announcement.
08:51Cependant, the semble bien qu'à travers toute l'Algérie,
08:54on ait voulu lever le papier
08:56against cellulite that appeals to strangers
08:59ou l'occupant, le français.
09:01This is because populations understand
09:02qu'elles doivent nous aider
09:03ou bien qu'elles s'exposed to the force of chosens
09:06et malgré notre volonté à souffrir davantage.
09:09I don't want to devour ourselves
09:10de faire weighing the force du côté de l'ordre,
09:15on the French side,
09:16du côté de la concordance entre les cytoyens.
09:24Combatants were labeled as outlaws.
09:27France wanted to keep Algeria at all costs.
09:37After repeated requests,
09:39Christophe Lafaye managed bit by bit
09:41to gain access to one box of military records
09:44And then another.
09:46In his tireless quest for the truth,
09:48he was able to acquire documents
09:49from the sellers of former soldiers
09:51and the addicts of their descendants.
09:58Hundreds of documents have been declassified,
10:01allowing Lafaye to piece together
10:03More of the puzzle.
10:05On May 21, 1956,
10:08two years after the war began,
10:11the commander of the armed forces in Algeria,
10:13known as the 10th Military Region,
10:16addressed the following letter
10:18to the Secretary of State for the Army.
10:21Subject: Use of chemicals.
10:23The Special Weapons Colonel paid me a visit.
10:26He said he'd obtained your agreement in principle
10:28relating to the use of chemicals in Algeria,
10:31according to the resident minister's decision.
10:34I'm honored to report
10:36that this high authority
10:37just got me to agree on this subject.
10:41This document shows
10:43how French military authorities
10:45authorized the use of chemical agents.
10:47The army worried how it would fight its enemy
10:50in the country's most mountainous regions.
10:52An initial assessment came three months later.
10:56Study of policy
10:57on the use of chemical weapons in Algeria.
11:00Cave infection.
11:01Infection by grenade is possible.
11:03Results of trials soon to be completed
11:06will help to define the product to be used.
11:08Old stock of chloroacetophenone.
11:11Stir nutatory candles.
11:15These were leftover stocks
11:17from the First World War.
11:20Incendiary tablets.
11:21Mass production poses no particular problems.
11:26Behind these documents,
11:28we find the scientific thinking
11:30based on experimentation,
11:32validation, and implementation.
11:34So we're really talking about a policy
11:36that's been thought through,
11:38considered, tested,
11:40then rolled out across the board.
11:43Six months later,
11:44the general staff took action.
11:46An order was sent from Paris.
11:49creation of special weapons platoon
11:52in the 10th military region.
11:55This battery will be maintained by conscripts.
12:09Jack Huret served in the army for 29 months.
12:13A pastry chef by trade,
12:16he had hoped to be placed with catering.
12:19Instead, he was assigned
12:20to the special weapons battery.
12:34During my stay,
12:36I bought a map
12:37where I marked
12:38all the places I passed through.
12:44In Algeria,
12:45we were there to process the caves.
12:47What did that mean?
12:49Well,
12:50to start,
12:51processing meant
12:53it was often
12:56They'd throw gas in there.
12:57so that they couldn't be used
13:00because the gas
13:01would stagnate in the holes.
13:05So it stopped the rebels
13:06from taking refuge.
13:09We knew things were banned
13:11by the Geneva Convention,
13:12but we didn't know which gases.
13:16Nothing was explained to us.
13:18Nobody ever told us
13:20what was inside the grenades
13:30This is the special weapons battery.
13:33This is a SAF-SAF operation.
13:37The platoon would leave in turn
13:39and the helicopter
13:40that would take us to operations.
13:43When we left for an operation,
13:45there'd be one or two
13:45career non-commissioned officers,
13:48NCOs,
13:49and the rest were NCOs like me.
13:53And then there were soldiers,
13:55but there were practically
13:56no volunteers.
13:57We were all called up.
13:59That's a cave we searched.
14:02which was used by the rebels
14:04as a field hospital.
14:07That's when we loaded the PIMs.
14:10They were prisoners,
14:11and they'd carry our equipment.
14:14See how we had a light helmet?
14:16Honestly, we had next to nothing.
14:20See the gas masks?
14:22That's all we had.
14:33Then there were things I'm still ashamed of.
14:36We'd have to do some research.
14:38We threw everything away.
14:40On balancer tout, huh?
14:46Jacques Huret keeps some memories to himself.
14:49But others he shares,
14:51such as this war diary
14:52written by a soldier
14:53from the Special Weapons Battery.
14:57I don't know if I should show you this.
15:00This is a liaison book.
15:02The operations are marked.
15:07Farewell to halls, tunnels, and galleries.
15:11Farewell to halls, tunnels, and galleries.
15:14Three meters behind the entrance
15:15It is a vertical wall.
15:18The only one who managed to get in
15:20retreats.
15:211 p.m.
15:23The cave is occupied by outlaws.
15:25A prisoner who served as a guide
15:27to the 14th Parachute Regiment
15:28was captured by the outlaws.
15:31The cave is infected at 2 p.m.
15:33At 2:40 p.m.,
15:35One outlaw emerges.
15:37Then three others.
15:38They are taken prisoner.
15:40At 4:20 p.m.,
15:41the major decides to explore the cave.
15:44The density of the gases
15:45makes progress impossible.
15:50Before using special weapons,
15:52Soldiers had to be trained.
15:55Christophe Lafay bought this manual
15:57from a soldier's son.
15:58The law is clearly stated.
16:01By virtue of international commitments,
16:04France is forbidden to use
16:05certain special weapons
16:07in the event of war.
16:08Combat gases, biological weapons.
16:10Their use is only justified
16:12as a reprise.
16:15Their use could therefore
16:16only be justified as a reprisal
16:18if they had been used by the enemy
16:20against French or Allied troops
16:22or the population.
16:23That was far from the case in Algeria.
16:30The separatists had no chemical weapons.
16:34They used the terrain to their advantage.
16:37It shaped how they moved,
16:39hid, and fought.
16:44Caves were strategic assets.
16:46By 1957,
16:48around 90,000 Algerians
16:50had taken up arms.
16:52The French government
16:53gave the army free rein.
16:58The general staff
17:00created no-go zones
17:01and began forcibly
17:03displacing the population.
17:05Torture was widespread
17:07and there were documented cases
17:09of chemical weapons being used.
17:15Very quickly, in fact,
17:17more than 100 units
17:18would be set up in Algeria
17:20and use these chemical methods.
17:23So we're going from use
17:25that's still limited
17:26to widespread use.
17:28In that context,
17:30chemical warfare
17:30takes on its full meaning.
17:33In the summer of 1958,
17:36General Raoul Salon
17:37was a powerful military leader
17:39with real political influence.
17:42Before leaving his post,
17:43he imparted a tried
17:44and tested strategy
17:46to his successor.
17:47In an exchange
17:48with the defense minister,
17:49he stressed the importance
17:50of chemical weapons.
17:53Subject,
17:54use of special weapons
17:55to maintain order in Algeria.
17:58Using special weapons
17:59to stop the at-law's use
18:00of underground sites
18:02needs to become widespread
18:03because of its effectiveness.
18:06All operational troops
18:07will now be supplied
18:08with elements needed
18:09for special missions.
18:12There are 70 battalion teams
18:14plus 26 teams
18:16plus 12
18:17plus 11.
18:21Platoons were created
18:22all over the Algerian territory.
18:25At the special weapons battery,
18:27three teams
18:28plus four
18:29plus seven.
18:40at the same time.
18:42THE NEW CITY
19:13So that was our tactic, search it, gas it, and if possible, blow up the entrance.
19:20When it was occupied, it was harder, but they knew they'd be gassed to death.
19:26They were surrendering.
19:28After that, it was out of our hands.
19:34Jean Vidalon spent over two years in Algeria.
19:37For ten months, he was assigned to the cave platoon in the Eures Massif.
19:45This is my suitcase of memories.
19:48It was with me in Algeria.
19:54So this is the photo album I was able to recover.
20:01All the photos that I took on operation were confiscated.
20:05I was never given an explanation.
20:08The ones I got are on this page.
20:11The film was in the camera.
20:14They didn't ask.
20:21We see the helicopter leave.
20:26We were arriving at the Special Weapons Platoon.
20:30That's where we learned what that meant.
20:32It was gas.
20:34This is the platoon in parade dress.
20:39Here, ready to board.
20:43But the first time we used this gas, we ended up with burns wherever we sweated.
20:52So we protested, and that's when we were supplied with dry suits.
21:01I've never known what's in these gases.
21:05It came in the form of grenades, or pots, which were worth 50 grenades.
21:13After throwing one of these pots, Jean Vidalon was decorated.
21:18Special Weapons Platoon Sapper, courageous and willing to take on dangerous missions,
21:24assisted his squad leader with rare efficiency,
21:27thus putting 10 opponents out of action.
21:32This citation includes the award of military valor, the bronze cross.
21:47After we'd returned from Algeria, many of us no longer wanted to hear about it.
21:51It's over.
21:56Besides, nobody asked us, just total silence.
21:59But me, in 60 years, I haven't once dozed off without thinking of the Algerian war.
22:07Somebody said I get an Algeria.
22:146 a.m.
22:15The lieutenant goes out with a team from the Special Weapons Platoon
22:19to reduce underground shelters.
22:22Arrival at Target on May 4 at 2.45 p.m.
22:25Cave is occupied by 11 outlaws, some officers.
22:29Major refueling.
22:31One typewriter and a transistor radio.
22:33Introduction of blower pipe 10 meters from entrance.
22:37Gassing required.
22:39Four pots of CN2D.
22:473:15 p.m.
22:50Cleared entrance obstructed by the cave's platoon
22:52and mixing of gassed air by the blower.
22:563:30 p.m.
22:57Cave entered through passage up to Fork located 8 meters from the entrance.
23:19I was called the rat because I'd go anywhere.
23:25Smaller guys were needed for the caves.
23:27You can't fit into rat holes if you're big.
23:35But I was a volunteer.
23:37Do you want to be a commando?
23:38Yeah.
23:40Commando isn't easy.
23:42From time to time when they do the cleaning here,
23:45certain smells remind me of that gas.
23:51Armand Casanova enlisted at 18.
23:54He stayed in Algeria for two and a half years,
23:57carrying out two or three cave operations per month.
24:03I can still smell the gas.
24:06It stayed with me.
24:07I can smell it.
24:09And I can smell death, too.
24:14After you've been there for 27 months...
24:23That's the commando platoon.
24:25The entire platoon.
24:28That's Sergeant Pashuki.
24:29Gozani, who was killed.
24:31He was killed, too.
24:33Slanska, too.
24:35Fisher died of...
24:36I don't know what.
24:38There aren't many left.
24:41Once I did a cave, it was...
24:43I can't remember where.
24:46I entered the cave at 9 a.m.
24:48and left it at 3 p.m.
24:51Six hours in there.
24:53I didn't realize.
24:55We put on a brave face, but we're scared.
24:591:45 p.m.
25:01Recognition continues.
25:05Extreme difficulty progressing.
25:08In part due to the narrow passage...
25:10and in part to wearing a gas mask...
25:12which makes it hard to move.
25:14Need to go out frequently...
25:16due to the very high concentration of gases.
25:194:30 p.m.
25:20Progression halted by many stone walls...
25:23built by the outlaws.
25:25Demolition commences.
25:27We're gaining 2 to 3 meters...
25:29in the right-hand passage.
25:36Once I got inside, I was shot at.
25:40As I moved, the mask came off...
25:42and I went about a minute without breathing.
25:46After a minute, it's difficult.
25:48I took a deep breath...
25:50And after that, I don't know.
25:54I found myself at the hospital in Tizi Uzo.
25:57I spent a month in the hospital there.
25:59It's an irritating gas.
26:01Not like tear gas.
26:03It's not a vesicant.
26:04It doesn't burn.
26:06It's not mustard gas either.
26:09But it's a heavy gas.
26:11It kills you.
26:12Anyone who was gassed and stayed for 50 minutes would die.
26:16They'd simply suffocate.
26:19At 6 p.m., a second attempt to explore the site unearths five bodies,
26:25including that of the prisoner-turned-guide.
26:28The operation is halted for the day.
26:318:30 a.m.
26:32Cave operation resumes.
26:35Four more corpses are found.
26:38The search of the cave is complete.
26:40The exit is sealed off by blasting the walls.
26:55The gases were quite heavy and clung to the walls.
26:59It's like dust on the walls.
27:01If you move it, well, it spreads throughout the cave.
27:05They're unusable for at least 10 or 12 years.
27:13The gas is called CN2D.
27:17Christophe Lefeuille found mention of it in military archives.
27:21The ammunition was color-coded according to its content and the quantities,
27:25from 70 grams to 5 kilograms.
27:30CN2D grenades, 160 grams, gray, green, and purple belt.
27:36Candles, 5,000 grams.
27:39CN2D violet-inviolet sticker.
27:43Rocket, chloroacetophenone plus diphenylamine chlorine.
27:52Chloroacetophenone, 30 grams DM.
27:54Few specialists can identify these gases, and even fewer will answer our questions.
28:00Claude Lefebvre is retired from the French Army.
28:03He's an expert in nuclear and chemical defense technologies.
28:07A regular broadcast of 22 minutes.
28:09So you can imagine the volume.
28:15With CN2D, you have a mixture of arsenic derivative, which is atomsite,
28:19and a cyanide derivative, chloroacetophenone.
28:24We're sure that the mixture works.
28:29Someone who doesn't protect themselves or who can't protect themselves before the attack,
28:33once attacked, there's no chance.
28:36He'll vomit, his eyes will stream, his lungs will burn.
28:42In fact, it's all over.
28:45The initial goal is to prevent the target from protecting itself.
28:48That's the ultimate goal.
28:53So to protect himself, there's only one solution.
28:56To get out.
28:57To leave the contaminated atmosphere.
29:00But if he insists on staying, then he dies.
29:13Contaminating the walls means you can't go back in.
29:19So the time-lapse depends on the initial density of use.
29:25So in fact, it was the empirical, traditional method.
29:29Burn loads of it to be sure of the effect.
29:37In the Urras Massif in eastern Algeria, CN2D devastated a community.
29:46Here on March 22nd and 23rd, 1959, the French army gassed more than 100 villagers who had
29:53found refuge in the Ushatou cave.
29:58Only the youngest survived.
30:13I returned the next day with my mother.
30:18We saw them take out the bodies.
30:22They put them in trenches by six or seven, down there.
30:31They were unrecognizable.
30:34They were all blue.
30:37You'd have to look at the clothing to identify them and say who is who.
30:43The bodies were all bloated.
30:46They were unrecognizable.
31:08The next day, I came with my mother to get my brother.
31:12He was alive.
31:14So people came to help us get him out of there.
31:18He was put on the mule.
31:20My mother guided the mule and I walked behind her.
31:25At home, they gave him a shower.
31:29The water came out green, as if he'd showered in green, as God is my witness.
31:38I'll tell you how we six survived.
31:42When they fired, we urinated in pots.
31:46We dipped our shirts in urine and protected our faces.
31:51That's why the toxic gases had no effect on us.
31:56We made it out, but we were young.
32:00They got us out.
32:01The French withdrew.
32:03When we got there, around 500 meters away, they blew up the cave.
32:13Listen.
32:16118 martyrs died here, in the cave.
32:27When we arrived home, everywhere we could hear women grieving.
32:32All the women were crying.
32:35Not one house was spared.
32:38Everyone lost a family member.
32:41In fact, it was like a horror movie.
32:45You heard crying everywhere, constantly crying.
32:51The martyrs who died remained buried there until independence.
33:04Then the authorities came with the villagers.
33:08They dug up the bodies, then reburied them.
33:11They devoted a cemetery to them.
33:33The war memorial honors those killed in Gaa-Ushatou.
33:39The memories of the revolution, as Algerians call the War of Independence,
33:45are dotted over the territory.
33:59In 1959, two million Algerians were forcibly displaced.
34:04The French army launched sweeping operations to destroy the last bases of the National Liberation Army.
34:11The Schall plan drew from five years of military tactics and the use of chemical weapons.
34:19The commander-in-chief of forces in Algeria ordered a reorganization of special weapons.
34:28For French General Maurice Schall, the cave platoons were a major asset.
34:34Each platoon has a command group and three similar processing teams.
34:38It is 38 strong.
34:40The commander-in-chief, attaching particular importance to the training of special weapons platoons,
34:46calls this to the general's attention.
34:48Air Force General Maurice Schall.
34:55Schall used chemicals systematically.
34:59Even unoccupied caves were gassed to prevent possible use.
35:04Each cave processed generates an information sheet, established by the relevant sector.
35:12Christophe Lafaye is trying to catalog every gassing operation, a huge undertaking.
35:19Lafaye estimates that there may have been as many as 10,000 gas attacks in the Algerian highlands,
35:26estimating that he's mapped out only about 440 so far.
35:30Not even 5%.
35:48In the summer of 1959, Schall arrived in the mountainous region of Kabyli in northern Algeria.
35:55About 40,000 soldiers operated in the Jejura Massif, under his command in Operation Binoculars.
36:04This cave, called the Lion Cave, was one of many gassed by Amon Kasanova.
36:17Ood-Zua Shlatamen was on the other side.
36:20He fought for four years with the National Liberation Front.
36:41Operation Binoculars began in early 1959.
36:46This period, when they displaced the villagers, was disastrous.
36:52The army installed artillery on the ridges so that no one could flee.
37:01From the ridges, they began bombing with mortars and cannons.
37:07France used everything he possessed.
37:10Absolutely everything.
37:12Gas, aviation, pumping.
37:15Everything it could use.
37:21We would watch the bombing from the mountains.
37:25We thought everyone had been murdered.
37:28Villages were destroyed.
37:29We saw smoke everywhere.
37:35I went up to the supply point.
37:38The villages helped us a lot.
37:40Especially the women.
37:43They hid the wounded, brought supplies, passed on the mail.
37:48The women suffered a lot.
37:57I was wounded in the hand.
38:00And by a bullet here.
38:03The bullet's still there.
38:07But it doesn't hurt.
38:24Even now,
38:27we can't talk about everything.
38:29There were so many horrible things.
38:31It's unimaginable.
38:39The first clash happened here, beside the houses.
38:46Four soldiers died.
38:48plus a dog, a cow,
38:49a woman,
38:50and her child.
38:52That was a very big cave.
38:54In it, they found weapon storage,
38:58the infirmary,
39:00workshops,
39:01and the administration.
39:03Typewriters, paper, and so on.
39:06Today, it still smells of gas.
39:08I haven't been able to go there for ages.
39:23Memories of the war are kept alive
39:25by the descendants of former fighters.
39:30Mohamed Yahya Masaud
39:32is the son of a combatant killed in 1960.
39:36He speaks with the last surviving fighters
39:38from the village of Ait-Mislene.
39:46Did you know it was gas?
39:48Some knew.
39:49Really?
39:50Yes, like your father.
39:55During one of the clashes,
39:56they played a kind of jerry can.
40:00It was like a can of paint.
40:02It ignites and spreads.
40:05That's napalm.
40:08Does it catch fire?
40:09No, napalm spreads like water.
40:12If it touches you,
40:14it burns and even cuts the bone.
40:16Mm-hmm.
40:22I saw these gases as,
40:25Okay, I'm a child.
40:27I'm looking at this.
40:29It's about hindsight.
40:31In other words,
40:33I was told about these gases.
40:35Still today,
40:36there are those who say
40:37that it still smells.
40:39It makes your eyes water.
40:41makes you sneeze.
40:43Even today,
40:44you can't enter certain caves.
40:48I see it as a scorched earth policy.
40:51In other words,
40:52France had lost the war.
40:54politically speaking,
40:55and had to destroy
40:56as much as possible.
40:59It was necessary.
41:02It was necessary.
41:02It was necessary to deteriorate
41:03as much as possible.
41:04It was necessary to do it.
41:11In March 1962,
41:13negotiations led by then-French
41:15President Charles de Gaulle
41:16concluded.
41:19The Algerian provisional
41:21and French governments
41:22signed the Evian Accords,
41:24ending a nearly eight-year war.
41:26The conclusion
41:27of the cessation of fire in Algeria,
41:31the adoptive provisions
41:34satisfy the reason
41:36of death.
41:39In Evian,
41:41in the utmost secrecy,
41:43Another agreement was made.
41:45Ever since the 1930s,
41:47the French army
41:48had used Algerian territory
41:49to test nuclear,
41:51biological,
41:52and chemical munitions.
41:54De Gaulle wanted that
41:55to continue.
41:57The B2 Namus base,
41:59reserved for chemical
42:00and biological weapons testing,
42:02It was preserved by France.
42:04B2 Namus
42:06It is in the Sahara.
42:07And in the Sahara,
42:08as we know,
42:09there are not many inhabitants.
42:10And the experiments
42:11of the France
42:12in B2 Namus
42:13did not hurt the Algerian.
42:15On the contrary.
42:16I would say,
42:17on the contrary,
42:18because it brought
42:19around B2 Namus
42:20a certain activity
42:21that completely disappeared
42:22when we closed the center.
42:25If Pierre Mesmer
42:26hadn't been former prime minister,
42:27he may have been charged
42:28with violating official secrets,
42:30as he revealed
42:31what many people know
42:32about the French
42:33military chemical program,
42:35particularly in Algeria.
42:37But this base
42:38continued to function
42:39after Algerian independence.
42:49Summer 1962.
42:51Celebration in the streets
42:53of Algiers.
42:54The Algerians
42:55had won their independence.
43:00The French army withdrew.
43:02The special weapons platoons
43:04It was dissolved.
43:05The veterans kept silent
43:07and the archives
43:08were classified.
43:11After the Cold War ended,
43:13Disarmament became global.
43:15Most countries
43:16would reach an agreement
43:17in 1993
43:19to ban chemical weapons
43:20once and for all,
43:21including their production.
43:24France hosted the conference
43:26in Paris
43:27under then-French president
43:28François Mitterrand.
43:42To join the chemical weapons convention,
43:44each state had to report
43:45its past chemical activities.
43:48Chemical weapons specialist
43:49Olivier Lepic
43:50worked on France's report.
43:52I was commissioned
43:54by the Ministry of Defense
43:55to write the history
43:56of France's
43:57military chemical program.
44:00Obviously,
44:01part of this work
44:01remains classified
44:02as I was lucky enough
44:04to gain access
44:05to all the archives,
44:06many of which
44:07remain closed to consultation,
44:09particularly by researchers.
44:12I'll be quite honest.
44:14The pretext
44:15that consultation
44:16of these archives
44:17could enable
44:17ill-intentioned people
44:18to manufacture
44:19a weapon of mass destruction
44:21doesn't hold water
44:22for more than five minutes.
44:25It's a screen
44:27behind which
44:27we take shelter
44:28to avoid exposing
44:30a number of other secrets,
44:32historical
44:33rather than technological.
44:43The French Republic
44:44buried the story
44:45of chemical weapons
44:46in Algeria.
44:48But more than 60 years later,
44:50the effects of the gas
44:51can still be felt.
44:55The gas used
44:57by the cave plateaus,
44:59CN2D,
45:00has irreversible consequences
45:02for former soldiers.
45:09My name is Yves Carninot.
45:13I was born in Belfort
45:15into a family of soldiers.
45:19That's why the homeland
45:21called me.
45:22France called me.
45:23That's sacred to me.
45:25Truth and honor.
45:34Indochina, Indochina.
45:36I served for four years
45:38in Algeria.
45:39That's the cave plateau.
45:46This cave.
45:48We fell.
45:50One of them got messed up.
45:51Got a bullet in the head,
45:52in fact.
45:53I sent in three pots of gas.
45:5515,000 cubic meters.
45:58The guys inside burned.
45:59There are some tough things
46:00in there.
46:01There are some tough things in there.
46:07It's hard to get out.
46:07Ives Carninot was injured several times
46:10by the gas he used
46:11against the Algerians.
46:16The bronchial tubes are getting worse
46:18It's the small bronchial tubes that are affected
46:22They're not doing their job for the lungs and heart
46:25The blood circulation
46:28It turns leather
46:31Of the 2,000 to 2,500 that I knew who were involved in the caves
46:35Not many could talk about it
46:46So when Yves applied for a disability pension
46:49The army didn't believe him
46:56I held the current file recently
47:01This is the entire administrative and legal procedure
47:06I did 15 years of procedure against the defense ministry to have my rights recognized
47:12It was one assessment after another
47:16I think there were three or four
47:22The Ministry of Defense didn't recognize it
47:24Of course, they didn't know the gases
47:27I was a liar
47:28We didn't use gas
47:30The civil servants and managers of the defense ministry can't understand because it's confidential
47:36The ammunition we had, the work we were doing was all top secret
47:45Yves Carnino crushed testimonies and archives
47:50Eventually, the ministry acknowledged he'd been wounded in combat
47:54But it was a breakthrough
47:57In here are people who were just like me
48:03They were killed
48:06By gas
48:07And it still follows me
48:35My father had ammunition on him
48:39He said, I'm not getting out, but you go
48:44He's still there today
48:50A rock fell on him
48:52We don't know where he is
48:58We never managed to find him
49:02Several are in that situation
49:06He's not alone
49:07In the 1970s, we pulled out five more
49:10He's still there
49:17My brother died there
49:19And he's still inside
49:21There are around 20 bodies in there
49:24Look at the state of the cave
49:26Devastated
49:30My brother didn't get out
49:31Only the bones remain
49:41That's war for you
49:44You see?
49:46My heart aches because he was my father
49:51I'll never forget him
50:11What happened can't be repaired
50:15But we hope now that things will calm down
50:18And that we'll look at things rather
50:20More wisely
50:27Acknowledge your crimes
50:28You must admit your crimes
50:32Recognizing them is already a step forward
50:41The use of such gases did not begin with the Algerian war
50:46It had its roots in the early stages of French colonization
50:52When Algerians found refuge in the caves
50:55French soldiers used toxic fumes to drive them out
50:59These operations were called smoke-outs
51:04One officer described it like this
51:09Nothing could give an idea of the horrible spectacle offered by the cave
51:14All the corpses were naked
51:17In positions indicating the seizures experienced before expiring
51:22Blood was coming out of their mouths
51:26But then the problem was solved
51:29No more noise was heard
51:39I think that historians' work has shown
51:42France didn't just do extraordinary things during the Algerian war
51:46There were even, it has to be said, war crimes
51:51Whether it be torture
51:52A number of summary executions
51:55Or the use of chemical substances
51:57Especially in the cave war
51:59And probably other things
52:02Great nations acknowledge their past
52:04Mistakes included
52:06One day France will have to face them
52:19The Ushatou Cave
52:20I wrote a poem for it on March 22, 1962
52:25When fighting stopped
52:26The Ushatou Cave
53:17The Ushatou Cave
53:25The Ushatou Cave
53:25The Ushatou Cave
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