TUNISIA: Rise of the Fellagha

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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.