France armed defector Bellounis into a private Muslim ‘third force’ army

Evidence

On 22 May he addressed a series of slightly mad letters to President Coty and General de Gaulle; three days later he refused to attend a meeting with his “controller”. … Some weeks later, Simone de Beauvoir noted in her journal: “The French have killed Bellounis, who was accused of having shot four hundred of his men; the Italian newspapers say the French have killed Bellounis and the four hundred men.” The official account is that Colonel Trinquier, who was commanding the 3rd R.P.C. after Bigeard had been repatriated and, having been despatched to wind-up “Operation Ollivier”, came across the recently executed corpses of Bellounis’s victims and decided to grant him no quarter. On 14 July the bullet-riddled body of Bellounis was picked up near Bou-Saada and displayed widely as a “traitor to France”. With the death of Bellounis there ended disastrously yet another private army enterprise; at the same time, it also removed for the F.L.N. the last major threat of a rival military bid by the Messalists. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 802 (#expands, via linked claim)

But in the long run it was to place the “loyal” Muslim block-wardens in a thoroughly invidious position, often resulting either in their assassination or in the end of their loyalty to France. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 588 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war; De Gaulle’s 1958 arrival threatened the F.L.N. through fraternisation and a Muslim third force; F.L.N. terrorism and G.P.R.A. assertiveness eroded the French ‘third force’ Muslim strategy — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1283 (+7 more)

Related

• The French executed their own proxy Bellounis and displayed his corpse (similarity 0.86)
• Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war (similarity 0.83)
• F.L.N. terrorism and G.P.R.A. assertiveness eroded the French ‘third force’ Muslim strategy (similarity 0.83)
• De Gaulle’s 1958 arrival threatened the F.L.N. through fraternisation and a Muslim third force (similarity 0.82)
• The F.L.N. terrorized Muslim collaborators and used mutilation as an economic and symbolic weapon (similarity 0.81)
• F.L.N. terror silenced Muslim informants and paralyzed collaboration with the French (similarity 0.81)
• Rebel guerrilla tactics eroded the French army’s moral terror over its enemies (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The French executed their own proxy Bellounis and displayed his corpse #expands (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 802
• De Gaulle’s 1958 arrival threatened the F.L.N. through fraternisation and a Muslim third force #expands (0.80)
• F.L.N. terrorism and G.P.R.A. assertiveness eroded the French ‘third force’ Muslim strategy #complicates (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1283
• The D.P.U.’s loyal Muslim wardens were often assassinated or turned against France #complicates (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 588
• F.L.N. terror silenced Muslim informants and paralyzed collaboration with the French #complicates (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 323
• The F.L.N. terrorized Muslim collaborators and used mutilation as an economic and symbolic weapon #complicates (0.60)
• De Gaulle paired Muslim representation guarantees with a peace offer to the FLN #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 937
• French critics charged that Evian betrayed loyal Muslim harkis and gave away petroleum. #complicates (0.55)
• Young nationalists contemptuously dismissed French-appointed Muslim intermediaries as rubber stamps #complicates (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 95