The regroupements Camps and the Collapse of Pilote 1
Army commanders in the Chelif, as elsewhere, frustrated by the problems of a hearts and mind approach and the difficulty of winning the support of dispersed populations, fell back on the standard ‘big division’ methods of sweep and search operations, destruction of farmhouses, mass internment, and forced displacement into military camps. By 1960 some 291 camps had been established in the Chelif region, holding a population of a quarter of a million, over 70 per cent of the peasantry. The army also declared zones interdites in which civilians were subject to artillery fire and bombing. Bourdieu and Sayad famously recounted the radical destruction of a traditional peasant order, but peasant communities still exerted, through the djemâa, a degree of collective unity and resistance. For example, through ritual submission to the French (aman) some douars in coming over ‘to the French side’, created protective zones for ALN fighters. Internal to the camps joint families and fractions were able to retain their forms of organization, a basis for self-regulation and resistance.