Rise of the Fellagha

France is slowly but steadily losing her grip on her North African empire. Morocco has been in turmoil for a year. Until recently, nearby Tunisia was relatively quiet, but last spring nationalists began stirring in Tunisia. The nationalists were dissatisfied with the limited "reforms" offered by Resident General Pierre Voizard; they were enraged by the moving of exiled Habib Bourguiba, the anti-Communist leader of Tunisia's most powerful political group, the Neo-Destour

Party, to an island off the northwestern French coast and they took heart from French reverses in Indo-China and confusion in Paris.

Now a fanatic new group has entered the fight, giving promise of real trouble.

They are called fellagha (pronounced fel-leg-a), which comes from the Arabic word meaning to cut or block, and reportedly traces back to the days when Arab bandits blocked roads and then descended on their victims. The fellagha, rising up in Tunisia's rich but savage hinterland, so far number about 400 fighters, led by Lazhar Cheraiti, who a year and a half ago was a transient laborer. The French claim that the fellagha were trained across the border in Libya by former French prisoners of the Viet Minh, brainwashed by their Communist captors. The French also say that the Arab League, the Communists and the Neo-Destour are at work with the fellagha, though the independence-seeking Neo-Destour Party stoutly insists it disapproves of violence and excess.

Last week from the French stronghold of Le Kef, in the mountainous heart of fellagha country, TIME Correspondent Frank White cabled: Around Le Kef, French colons--colonial planters--were busy with their U.S.-made combines in waist-high grain, harvesting the best crop (56% above average) in the province's history. But the colons were not alone with their flailing combines.

Submerged in the rippling sea of tawny grain, there lurked a hidden menace.

There were fellagha in the grain.

I made the trip from Tunis to Le Kef in a car provided by the French resident general. The trip is made in the daytime only, over a road patrolled by French troops. Just before we left, the government press officer handed me a German-made submachine gun wrapped in brown paper. To the driver who was taking me to Le Kef, I thought it only fair to explain that German arms were a little out of my line."It's all right, monsieur," he said. "I drive so fast that by the time the fellagha get ready to shoot, we are far past them." He seldom drove under 70 m.p.h.

"They Are Only Girls." Two pro-French Arabs were recently caught by the fellagha. One had his tongue cut off; the other was blinded in one eye with a lighted cigarette. On the morning of May 26 a family of colons named Bessede were surrounded in their isolated farmhouse. Two men of the family were shot down at the door, and the wife of one was raped. Two days later the same band of about 30 terrorists killed three more planters.

The French have moved in 1,000 troops, including a detachment of Moroccan goumiers (who dote on killing Tunisians), some black Senegalese, and colonial infantry with tanks. There is also a new civilian controller, a hulking 200-pounder with clear blue eyes, a granite chin and a flair for calm heroics--Jean Paul Desparnets. 41. Raised in North Africa, where his father taught Arabic, Desparnets goes around unarmed in an open jeep. He is a career civil servant of France, and has served with U.N. commissions in the U.S. and Peru. Almost daily he receives notes from the fellagha. The latest read: "Take back those soldiers you're sending here. They are only girls.

We will eat them for breakfast." The colons and the troops see the fellagha signaling at night, with flashlights from the tops of hills. "The flick of a burnoose, the beating of a donkey may mean something--who knows?" Desparnets says. "All a fellagh has to do is drop his gun, and zut, he becomes a plain Arab named Mohammed. It's not hard for them." The fellagha never attack unless certain of victory. In combat with anything like equal numbers, they leave four men behind as a suicide force to protect their fleeing leader.

"There's So Little . . ." This week on the farm of Rene Muzart, the wheat was being harvested under the protection of troops with a Patton tank. When the harvest is finished, the tank and the soldiers will go elsewhere. So the Muzarts are leaving their farm--perhaps forever.

Mme. Muzart, a plain woman worn by hard work, was almost in tears. "There's so little we can take along," she said.

Her husband blamed the ignorance of the French public at home. "They have no sympathy for us," he said. "They seem to think we're millionaires who rob the Arabs who work for us." Last week Resident General Voizard flew to Paris to take a request to Premier Mendes-France. "Terrorism has installed itself," he said. "We cannot remain passive to these attacks." Presumably that meant more troops (of which France has not enough to go around) and sterner measures. If rumors going around the Tunis bazaars have it right (and they usually have), that is just what the extremists want.

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