Tirailleurs sénégalais troops as POWs; photo credit.
The question of the pensions of the
colonial veterans
As
most French colonies were in the process of acquiring their independence, the
French government passed a law on December 26, 1959, effective on January 1,
1961, that officially replaced the pensions due to the now foreign veterans with
an indemnity, as shown below:
« Loi de finances no 59-1454 du 26 décembre
1959
Pensions servies à certains anciens ressortissants
des territoires d'outre-mer.
Art. 71— I. A compter du
1er janvier 1961, les pensions, rentes ou allocations viagères imputées sur le
budget de l'Etat ou d'établissements publics, dont sont titulaires les
nationaux des pays ou territoires ayant appartenu à l'Union française ou à la
Communauté ou ayant été placés sous le protectorat ou sous la tutelle de la
France, seront remplacées […] par des indemnités annuelles en francs, calculées
sur la base des tarifs en vigueur pour lesdites pensions ou allocations, à la
date de leur transformation. »
(Finance
law # 59-1454 of December 26, 1959
Pensions
allocated to a certain number of former inhabitants of the overseas
territories.
Art.71-
I. Effective January 1, 1961, the pensions, annuity or allowance for life, deducted
from the State’s budget or that of public establishments, received by the
nationals of countries or territories that used to be part of the French Union
or the Community or that used to be protectorates or under the tutelage of
France, will be replaced…by annual indemnities paid in francs, established on
the basis of the current rates applied to the afore mentioned pensions or allowances,
at the date of their transformation.)
In
other words, the veterans of the former French colonies saw their compensation for
their service in the French armed forces frozen to the rate of 1959 whereas
their French brother-in-arms still received pensions based on the cost of
living in France. This decision of the French government is known as the
“cristallisation,” or freezing, of the pensions of veterans from the colonies.
Retirement, pensions for invalidity and pensions due to veterans having
experienced combat were thus affected. Unfortunately, the tirailleurs were
relics of a past that the newly independent colonies and France were eager to
forget.
The
first step in the abolition of this discrimination was made in 1989 when a few
Senegalese veterans obtained from the Court for Human Rights committee of the
United Nations an acknowledgement that France was indeed discriminating against
these men. However, this victory remained symbolic as the French Higher Court
rebutted the committee’s interpretation of the law. It was then up to the
European Court of Human Rights to condemn France for its violation of article
14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The article does indeed prohibit
discrimination based on national origins. In response, the French government
implemented a revision of the 1959 law by adjusting, in December 2002, the
indemnities to the cost of living of the country of residence of the veteran.
This
new law was only a half-measure in the sense that overseas veterans received
much smaller pensions than their French counterparts. Me Houssam Othman-Farah, a
lawyer in Bordeaux, France, thus noted that while a French veteran would
receive a pension of 600 euros, a Senegalese would get 150 euros and a Moroccan
80 euros. In 2006, the popularity of the
movie “Indigènes” contributed to the reevaluation of the pensions by the French
government, which then opted for a partial reform or “décristallisation
partielle.” All veterans, French or foreign, eligible for a pensions for invalidity
or for having experienced combat, would receive payments based on the same
criteria. However, this reform did not apply to the foreigners who served 15
years or more in the French military but never experienced combat.
The final chapter of this “décristallisation” was written
by the French president in July 2010 and set into law in December 2010:
“L'article
211 de la loi n° 2010-1657 du 29 décembre 2010 abroge l'ensemble des lois
cristallisant les pensions des ressortissants des pays ou territoires ayant
appartenu à l'ancien empire colonial français.
[…]
Par ailleurs, les dispositions législatives
décristallisant partiellement ces pensions (articles 68 de la loi n° 2002-1576 du 30 décembre 2002 et 100 de la loi
n° 2006-1666 du 21 décembre 2006) sont également abrogées.”
The article 211 of the law n° 2010-1657 of December 29, 2010 abrogates the corpus of
laws freezing the pensions of the citizens of the countries or territories that
used to be part of the former French colonial empire.
[…]
Furthermore,
the legal dispositions reforming partially these pensions ((articles 68 of the
law
n°
2002-1576 of December 30, 2002 and 100 of the law n° 2006-1666 of December 21,
2006) are likewise abrogated.)
Parity between all veterans has finally been
achieved. However, pensions are established on a point system that takes into
consideration the type of service provider by the veteran and the duration of
such service but the French government has no obligation to look for such
information. In other words, it is up to the veteran to provide justification
for each point he or his family may claim.
This
last reform, presented by the French president as a just retribution for the
debt owed by France to its former colonies, should not distract us from the
fact that many of the veterans of WWII are long deceased and that this law only
applies to the remaining few. Furthermore, the payment of these pensions has to
be claimed and justified, point by point, by the veteran or his family. In the
words of French general Lang, “On a décristallisé pour se donner bonne
conscience mais on n'a pas rendu suffisamment les choses possible” (We have
decrystallized to have a clear conscience but we have not made things
sufficiently possible).
Sources:
