TELLS CHINESE ABOUT ALGERIA'S FREEDOM STRUGGLE . “Em our issue of October 1s, we reported that China had granted Algeria a loan of $50,000,000 waile an Algerian delegation headed by Amar Ouzegane was visiting that country. We also referred to some remarks madeby Ouzegane, A more complete report of this important tour and the posi~ ... tion taken by Ouzegane was published by the Peking Review of October is, The text follows. -- Editor. ] .
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The recent visit of the Algerian Government Delegation, led by Minis~. ter of State Amar Ouzegane, has further strengthened friendly relations between China and Algeria. On October 11 it was announced that China has . agreed to. extend a long-term, interest-free loan to Algeria amounting to 250 million French francs (or 25,000 million old francs).
Invited by .Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Chen Yi, the Algerian delegation during its 10-day stay in China received a warm welcome from the Chinese.Government and people, The delegation attended the October l National Day celebrations in Peking and later visited Hangchow and Shanghai in east China and Kunming in the southwest. It left China for Indonesia-on October 9, . ;
While in Kunming, a famous scenic city in the multi-national southwest~ ern province of Yunnan, Minister of State Amar Ouzegane paid a visit to Yunnan University where he talked to 3,000 students and faculty members: , on the. Algerian people's struggle .for national independence.
Amidst repeated applause, the Algerian Minister told the’ gathering that since 1830, when Algeria became a French colony, his people had never ceased to fight’ for national independence, He criticized those who had wavered in the revolution or opposed it, including leaders of the French and Algerian Communist Parties, He recalled that, in the early days of the Algerian national~«independence movement, the jeaders of the French Com= munist Party arbitrarily issued orders. to. the Algerians without considering the country's specific conditions.
As if not wishing to be outdone, leaders of the Algerian Communist Party regarded the people's struggle for independence as adventurous and foolhardy, said Amar Ouzegane. Alleging that the workers and peasants were incapable of seizing political power and running the government, they raised. such slogans as higher wages, vacations, increased welfare and family allowances, rather than leading the national-independence movement, Consequently, the banner of the revolution passed into the hands of those who were actually fighting for Algeriats independence.
The Algerian Minister of State also told the gathering that, in the course of his people's liberation struggle, certain intellectuals thought that the United States could be persuaded £0 make the French Government grant Algeria self-government, They did not want to rely on the masses of the Algerian people and carry through the revolution, There were others, he revealed, who maintained that Algerian independence could be gained . through parliamentary struggle by Algerians in the French National Assem-. bly. The hard facts, he declared, shattered the illusion that imperialism would grant the people self-government, The only way to obtain independence was for Algeria to rely on itself, to take up arms and struggle-.by every .
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possible means to destroy colonialism, he emphasized. |
- - Noting that his people started their armed struggle with. only 500 hunting guns against 100,000 well-equipped French troops, the Minister of State recalled that the leaders of some political parties. had regarded the upris~ ing as adventurist and a "suicidal vperation”. which could not last more than three months, At that time the Political Bureau of the French Communist. Party also issued a communique condemning the operation on these grounds, These pseudo-revolutionary theoreticians, he said, had forgotten that the. Algerian people had completely repudiated the reformist ideology.
“The Minister went on to describe how thousands upon thousands of. young people joined the fighting organizations and how the Algerian National , Liberation Army grew in strength. The. struggle was terrible, he declared, andthe Algerians lost one and a half million of their: people, But the morale of the Algerian fighters was so high that they preferred to die rather than live like dogs under foreign domination. Minister of State Amar Ouzegane told how eager the Algerian officers and men were to learn from the experience of other. countries and their methods of gaining victory and how Chairman Mao Tse-tungts. revolutionary ideology on revolutionary = war: spread throughout Algerian towns. and villages, As an expression of the Algerian people's friendship for the Chinese people, Minister of State Amar Ouzegane declared, President Ben. Bella decided to send a government delegation to China to demonstrate.that they would always stand together with their Chinese brothers.
Vice=Premier and Foreign Minister Chen Yi who accompanied Minister of State Amar Ouzegane and his. delegation during their tour of the country also spoke, Expressing thanks to the Algerian Minister, Chen Yi said that his speech clearly showed that those leaders who. wavered in the revolution or opposed it ultimately would be rejected by the masses, This, the Vice- Premier said, was borne out by both the Algerian-and Chinese revolutions, "Only those. who take an active. part in the revolution," he stressed, "and firmly struggle against the enemy can achieve final victory for the revoe lution, gain the support of the people and contribute to the revolutionary cause of the people throughout the world,"
NOBEL PRIZE WAS AN. WINSULT™
Life, a weekly publication of the Luce family, denounced the award. of the -1962