Citation

Branche R. Int. Rev. Red Cross (1999) 2007; 89(867): 543-560.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Committee of the Red Cross, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S181638310700121X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During its war against the armed nationalist movement fighting for Algerian independence (1954-62), France made extensive use of torture, for which the main justification given was the terrorism employed by the National Liberation Front, even though such terrorist violence was neither the nationalists' main form of action nor the French army's true target. Research into the methods used and the aims pursued challenges that justification, shedding light on the way in which torture really operates in a war of this kind, even though the Algerian War has been presented as a model for many subsequent conflict situations.

Language: en