In a precedent-setting decision, a French appeals court yesterday awarded the status of war victim to Mr Mohmed Garne, the son of an Algerian woman who was raped by French soldiers during the Algerian war of independence.
The court overturned two previous rulings which found that Mr Garne (41) was "not the direct victim of violence". His mental and physical disabilities are now recognised as the result of a war crime, and he will receive a French government pension for three years.
"This decision goes beyond my client's case," Mr Jean-Yves Halimi, Mr Garne's lawyer said. "It shows that the way of thinking about the Algerian war is changing. Until today, we knew there were crimes committed by the French army, but there were no guilty parties. "Today we know they left a victim."
An Algerian war veteran, Gen Paul AussarΘs, will go on trial in Paris next week for defending the use of torture in Algeria in a recent book.
Mr Garne began his legal battle in 1989, the year he found his mother Kheira, who was living in a hovel in an Algiers cemetery. After she was kidnapped by French soldiers at the age of 14, Kheira Garne was taken to their barracks south-west of Algiers and gang-raped. When she became pregnant they beat her in the hope she would have a miscarriage. She abandoned her baby in an orphanage. Mr Garne has worked as a janitor in a Paris department store.
"I'm happy - for myself and for the other victims who will come forward," he said.
Two Algerians with similar stories have contacted him. "I am the first one who dared to challenged the State, and it worked.
" A great weight has been lifted from me; it will give me some peace of mind. For 13 years, I've been saying that my mother was raped. Nobody wanted to listen, but I fought the good fight and truth won."
