Scientific event

First and foremost, this conference serves as a duty to bear witness. In short—to borrow the words of historian Benjamin Stora—it represents "a difficult but necessary exercise," aiming to be the culmination of a painful effort toward historical memory that has been deferred for far too long.
Among the contentious points regarding the shared and unresolved historical memory between France and Algeria, highlighted in the January 2021 Report by Benjamin Stora, the dossier of "July 5, 1962, in Oran" holds a prominent place. Regarding this matter, the author of the report proposed:
"The establishment of a joint commission of French and Algerian historians to shed light on the abductions and assassinations of Europeans in Oran in July 1962, and to hear the testimonies of witnesses to this tragedy."

It therefore took 40 years—until 2002*—under the political opening initiated following the popular uprising of October 1988, for tongues to finally loosen and consciences to be liberated. This shift led to a wealth of unprecedented testimonies that we were able to gather concerning the bloody events of that Thursday, July 5, 1962.

Based on these firsthand accounts collected from trustworthy individuals who held positions of responsibility at the time, we have been able to more or less reconstruct the Algerian version of what took place that day. These witnesses belonged to:

The Autonomous Zone of Oran (ZAO)

The networks of the Political-Administrative Organization of the FLN (OPM/FLN)

The ranks of the National Liberation Army (ALN)

📌 Historical/Chronological Note: The original text mentions "waiting 40 years, in 1992." Mathematically, 40 years after 1962 corresponds to the year 2002, whereas 1992 marks 30 years. The text aligns 1992 with the democratic and media opening that followed the 1988 riots and the 1989 constitution, during which public speech regarding the war began to significantly free itself.