TUNISIA: Surrender of the Outlaws

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In the little town of Mateur, 40 miles from the capital city of Tunis, a nationalist in a scarlet skullcap leaped atop a rickety table and proclaimed joyful news to a crowd. One by one, he haled 17 cleanshaven, tough-looking young men up beside him, and as each appeared the crowd yelled louder and hand-clapped rhythmically. The 17 young men wore faded U.S. Army Eisenhower jackets, adorned with the red, white and red patch of Tunisian independence fighters.

They were local boys, safely down from the hills, where they had been fellaghas (nationalist outlaws), hunted by posses of steel-helmeted French troops. They had come in obedience to one of the strangest truces in modern history: a French promise to forgive past offenses, and give them immunity from prosecution, if they surrendered with their arms.

"May God Help You." Operation Fellagha began early last week in the Beylical Palace in Carthage, where 44 Tunisians and 22 French officers stood before His Highness Sidi Mohammed el Amin, the mustachioed monarch of Tunis, and explained their plan. Twenty-two teams, composed of two Tunisians and one Frenchman, would go into the hills to offer amnesty to the fellaghas. Each jellagha who accepted would get a formal certificate of absolution, bearing his thumbprint to prevent chicanery; a stub, also with thumbprint, would be retained by the government. "Go, my dear children," blessed the Bey of Tunis. "May God help you." The emissaries had a deadline: midnight, Dec. 9. The following day. Premier Pierre Mendès-France must defend his plan before the French National Assembly, and success would be the only good defense. Failure would mean the return of the terror which has taken 226 lives in the past six months.

A roly-poly Trade Unionist named Lahbib Ben Mohammed, who has himself served time in French prisons for his nationalism, led one team into the hills near Jafna, sent word ahead by intermediaries, and sat down on a rocky slope to wait. At the appointed time, a slim, khaki-clad young man, binoculars slung around his neck, pistol bolstered in his belt, suddenly appeared before him. In a few minutes a bargain was struck, and out of hiding rose 22 more outlaws. They surrendered 15 rifles, 1,200 rifle cartridges, 5 revolvers with 200 rounds, and got thumb-printed amnesties in exchange.

Brigands & Patriots. All over Tunisia, similar parleys went on. Handsome Lazar Shraiti, 36, the most famous of all the fellagha chiefs, marched into Gafsa after nearly three years of outlawry, turned over 126 men and 112 rifles and carbines to the French, then went back to contact the hundreds of other fellaghas under his command. In his tiny stone hideout, he told TIME Correspondent William McHale, "I am a civilian now."

Such surrenders were made possible only because the Neo-Destour. Tunisia's leading independence party, agreed to the French plan. Most of the men who went out into the mountains with French officers at their sides were members of NeoDestour, seeking to prove that though they want independence they do not approve violence. It still remains to be seen whether the Neo-Destourists can influence more than their own supporters in the hills. Perhaps another 1,500 fellaghas continue to hide out; some are fanatic patriots, others are, and always have been, ruthless brigands.