>> donald trump a second impeachment trial has been delayed until february, following an agreement between chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell. the former president is accused of inciting an insurrection after encouraging supporters to march on the capitol building earlier this month. joe biden has signed two executive orders to help families hit hard by the pandemic. he is looking for a bipartisan support in congress to pass a stimulus package worth $1.9 trillion. pres. biden: i don't believe

democrats or republicans are going hungry and losing jobs, i believe americans are going hungry and losing jobs. we have the tools to fix it. we have the tools to get through this. we have the tools to get this virus under control and our economy back on track. we have the tools to help people. so let's use the tools. use them now. >> a retired army general has become the first african-american picked to be defense secretary, lloyd austin says he is committed to rooting out the growing threat of domestic extremism in the country. britain's prime minister is morning that the coronavirus variant is not only more contagious but could be more deadly. the news comes as infection rates began to drop but boris johnson says britain can't consider unlocking until the government is confident in the vaccination program is

protecting the population. belgium is banning residents from taking non-essential trips abroad. it is an effort to stop the spread of the more contagious variant. the restriction goes into effect monday and will stay in place until march. it comes after eu leaders agreed to keep orders open to essential transport but left it up to member states to take further measures. that you and refugee agency says the number of people displaced by violence in africa has surpassed 2 million. it says humanitarian teams are dangerously overstretched and is appealing for more international help. we will have a check of the headlines at the top of the hour. for now, it is inside story. thanks for watching. ♪

♪ >> a truth commission to scrutinize france's colonial past, though the initiative is passed by the president, he is refusing to apologize for abuses committed during the country's occupation. his reconciliation -- is reconciliation possible without repentance? this is inside story. ♪ welcome to the program. algeria's war of independence lasted from 1954 to 1962 and was one of the bloodiest conflicts as former powers colonized. more than one billion people were killed, french historians

estimate 400,000 died. we will discuss this with our panel of guests in a moment, but first, here is barbara's report. >> calling for reconciliation of memories, president mike brown is setting up a truth commission to investigate -- president macron is setting up a truth commission, but rejecting calls for an apology. >> there are two things i hope from this report, the first is the message of the report, namely that the circulation of memories exists, that people can understand each other, that the french can understand what the algerian experience was and that algerians enter the fresh

history -- the french history of the algerian war. >> the report suggests the commission should hear testimony from those who suffered during algeria's war of independence that ended in 1962. it says that the trail of french colonial rule in school should be overhauled. the proposals avoided comment on systematic torture of military detainees and suspects carried out by french forces. it was policy president macron acknowledged in 1918. many are criticizing france's refusal to issue an official apology. the government's reaction has been muted and that has been condemned. >> we do not like france and this colonialism has not recognized its crimes and it has committed important crimes, 1.5 million martyrs have been killed, the ideal in -- the algerian state must strike hard.

>> france will not apologize and the reason why is is that it's -- is it is afraid of having to pay financial compensations. >> the establishment of the commission create a report for emmanuel macron given that 5 million people with type two algeria live in france. they include immigrants and their families, war veterans, and french citizens who settled in nigeria. their views and questions over identity and integration going back to the nigerian war will be a strong and contentious force -- algerian war will be a strong and contentious force in french policy. ♪ >> let's bring and our guests, the chief foreign correspondent at the figaro, a professor of political science and international relations, and a

sociologist and researcher at school of advanced study in social sciences. welcome to the program. this report says its purpose is to achieve a reconciliation but it also ruled out france issuing an apology for the past. can there be reconciliation without an apology? >> it will be difficult to achieve reconciliation without an apology. but it could be achieved if france recognizes its crimes and atrocities committed in algeria over 132 years. i would say this report by the professor who was bombed in algeria and who is a specialist in the north african -- in north africa is a good step indeed. president macron should be

congratulated for being the first president to walk into this minefield because several french presidents before him never wanted to, but president macron has started to make overtures towards algeria and you look into the history between the two countries. >> yusuf was talking about the fact that president macron is the first french president to wade into this minefield. previous presidents did not. mr. macron commissioned this report, he is going to create a recommendation. how politically risky is this for him? >> first of all, i want to say that the french colonial presence in algeria was 132 years of atrocities.

you had a war to conquer algeria . then there was -- [indiscernible] a lot of people seem to be happy with the french ruling at the time. and then a war started, war of independence, which started against two french school teachers. then the french army did commit

some atrocities and torture. torture was banned only in 1958. of course, also, a lot of atrocities were committed by the rebels against french civilians, but also against a lot of algerians, and after the war, after the peace was signed in 1962 where algerians and french did not decide for apologies and things like that, algerians did not abide and they massacred, where all of this writing -- all

of this fighting with the french army. of course, if france would apologize, algeria would have to apologize for the fact that rebels did torture french people, but also a lot i can southern algerian people. -- a lot against other algerian people. there were some pirates in algeria at the beginning of the 19th century. france stopped the pirates. francis discovered oil and left everything for the algerians. the way the algerians ruled the

old country is debatable. the current leader of al jerry got does not want to talk too much how they ruled themselves -- leader of algeria does not want to talk too much how they ruled themselves. >> i want to ask a question related to some of what you are saying. in 2018, emmanuel macron recognized the use of torture by french forces in algeria. in 2017, he called france's colonization a crime against humanity. that was startling at the time. if he has gone that far already, there is an argument about why not go ahead and apologize? >> i think we need to unpack the debate and give more contacts to the people who are listening to us. this is a french report.

this is not a report between france and algeria to agree on the past. this is a french report linked to the specific conditions of emmanuel macron's mandate into the debates going on in france that are trying to -- that are somehow worrying about the impacts of colonialism and colonial arguments in france and there is a willingness to think about the algerian work in relationship with the colonization. [indiscernible] and there is a need to calm down the debates.

so this is the framework of the debate. i think this issue of repentance and apologies, that is something that is related to france itself an the fact that france remains, if i can put it that way, attached to the issue of repentance and apologies. it is giving birth to two important synonyms. first, doing so because the algerian regime has not asked for its own report it is not commissioned an independent group of historians and it won't. but i think the issue of repentance is having two

important consequences. first, the algerian regime -- [indiscernible] it is also angering the french extreme right movements to join this debate and that is not fruitful, actually. >> let's look at the role of truth commissions. truth commissions have been set up in 40 countries to encourage resolution following conflict. many are based on a model created in south africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. that commission gathered testimony about abuses to start a process of national healing. iberia set one up to investigate one of the worst civil wars in africa's histories. among algeria's neighbors, morocco has had one since 2004, create two and abuses under the king, 18 thousand people have been compensated but none accused of torture have been

pursued. in tunisia, a commission was set up to look into the dictatorship . by a 2018, a path 200 cases to the judicial authorities. -- 52018, it passed 200 cases to the judicial authorities. >> i would say the commission's work, they want to find out what happened because algerian history is not written properly or at least as far as the war is concerned. who committed what? and how? there are so many issues that will be covered. the apology has been excluded and has never been to a large

extent a demand for the algerian authorities. it is a popular demand for the average algerian, they want an apology from france. this report recognized certain things, such as an assassination, which is a good start. after these particular commissions have uncovered what they need, they spoke about nuclear tests in the south of algeria, for instance, it is only when the truth is known that a decision will be made. it could be in the form of an apology, it could be in the form of shaming. when we talk about the assassination, which has always

been a secret by the french authorities and it is only recently that someone went to france and met the french general who executed him, we know about this, we have learned about this for 10 years or so only. i guess it is only when we know what happened exactly, then we can debate what remedies should be made. >> you were mentioning in your previous answer that issue of atrocities committed during the wars. president macron's office said he would follow the back renovation -- follow the recommendation to create a truth commission. do you expect there will be testimonies from people who suffered during the war? >> history is always good to be

written. you have still many witnesses alive, so you should have witnesses and history of the french war in nigeria -- in algeria. both sides committed atrocities. there was an algerian center that killed algerian innocence -- innocents. all of this has to be recognized. also, of algerian french prisons

in algeria, as i said. personally, i don't agree, because emmanuel macron said that in general, colonization is a crime against humanity. i think it is debatable. my ancestors have been attacked. [indiscernible] but i am happy that colonization , that julius caesar wanted france -- won in france and was forced to learn roman rules and attributes. personally, i am happy to have been colonized by the romans. i think it is debatable what

macron said. but it is true that we need a history written together by algerians and french. there are a lot of good algerian scholars, intellectuals. it will be nice to have this history written together. [indiscernible] so it is time we need to write together this history, though it was not decided in 1962 in the agreement, but now, why not? write together the story that you will not have apology from

any side, like you will not have to reconciliation or apology from the nigerian -- algerian army. a lot of atrocities have been committed. you don't expect apologies from the algerian army and algerian government for this atrocities. so you will never have apologies. >> it has been almost 60 years since the end of the war. how much does it continue to strain french-algerian ties? >> official memories will be always used as a way to ease or as a way to promote a specific agenda on both sides. we should, getting beyond this

official use of the french-algerian history, to look at one important factor. there are new generations in both countries now and there is a need to transmit this knowledge to the new generation, a need to understand how algerian history should be told, what it is for young algerians who have not been able to visit the country because algeria has become a close country for the past 30 years, young french people who believe colonialization is something bad. there is a correspondence between the two generations. that is something interesting that is mentioned may be too quickly in the report. it is the need to think about a way for the new algerian and new french generations to depend on each other. the thing is we don't know, at

least from an official point of view, what they want. i do not believe that this issue -- [indiscernible] our billy at the heart of the interests for each other. -- are really at the heart of the interests for each other. nothing will be able to be done without the algerian regime and the fact that algerian historians should be more free air to join the debate -- frer to join the debate -- freer to join the debate. young algerians are not obsessed with the idea of repentance. they are not even looking at

france has an old colonial power. -- france as an old colonial power. the officials have to follow more closely and to work with civil societies and not try to limit the exchange and to link their reports and work. >> we only have a couple minutes president macron -- couple minutes left. president macron hopes this will normalize relations between france and algeria. do you think that can happen? >> this report is one-sided. it represents france's official view of the situation and what

needs to be done. as of now, we have not heard anything official from the algerian government. [indiscernible] obviously, we would like, everybody would like this story, this love/hate relationship between france and algeria, in the words of a former algerian president, who said france and algeria are mountains of blood and scars. this memory, we need to know more about it. i was pleased to see in the report, schoolchildren in france would be advised and will look at the war in algeria with

colonialism, shed the light on so many of the dark secrets, opening up the archives. that, in my mind, is a significant step forward, at least from the french government be cares let's not forget -- because that's not forget -- let's not forget the national a simile of france decreed a load that defied colonialism. as far as algeria is concerned, they wanted to criminalize colonialism and the motion was rejected in 2010, 20, and 2020. -- 20, and 2020. -- 2016, and 2020. >> thank you to our guests.

and thank you for watching. you can see the program any time by visiting our website and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. from me and the whole team, bye for now. ♪

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