This year marks the 60th anniversary of the end of a brutal conflict that France only officially recognised as being a war in 1999. Between 1954 and 1962, swords were locked between France and Algeria, with nationalists in the North African country determined to push the colonisers out. In March 1962, along the shores of Lake Geneva, a peace deal was finally reached between ministers and a delegation from Algeria's provisional government. The Evian Accords would eventually result in Algeria's independence, ending 132 years of French rule.
Like with any war, the conflict and its consequences mean different things to different people depending on which side they supported and what they endured. Historian Olivier Dard explains how this 60th anniversary of independence is a real patchwork of different memories.
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Some steps have been taken recently by French authorities in a bid to break the silence on this conflict, after what some call a prolonged period of official amnesia. FRANCE 24 went to meet a group of youngsters with a direct link to those who fought in the Algerian War. These young people are now eager to offer suggestions to the government on how best to face up to the past.
>> October 17, 1961: A massacre of Algerians in the heart of Paris
