serge carel was one. and he has been telling witness history about his ordeal. were local forces, on the side of the french army in algeria's independence of the war. we gave everything for france, but what we didn't know was that france would abandon us. news reel: as tensions rises in french north africa, france arms her algerian supporters for defence against rebels raids. the prefect of 0ran province, monsieur lambert, personally hands out weapons to muslims recruits at nadroma, where hundreds are being enrolled daily. translation: i was about 17-and-a half, 18—years—old at the time. you had to choose between france and the rebels. my father had been in the french army and had fought in world war i. my brothers were also in the french army. so i chose france. i was proud of what we did. proud of serving france. we were always sent out in front of the french troops. if there was an attack, the harkis would be the first to die. we had to get rid of the fln fighters, who were terrorising the population. translation: we always knew that one day algeria would gai