October 17, 1961: several tributes in France, 60 years after the massacre

Published on : 10/17/2021 – 22:58

Sunday October 17, exactly 60 years after the tragic events which caused the death of dozens of Algerians in Paris, the tributes began in the morning with a symbolic gesture: Didier Lallement laid a wreath on the banks of the Seine. He is the first prefect of police in Paris to do so, after a minute of silence “in memory of the dead of October 17, 1961”, according to the prefecture.

On October 17, 1961, it was under the authority of the prefect Maurice Papon that were committed what the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, described as “inexcusable crimes for the Republic” on Saturday. Didier Lallement’s gesture was made at the Saint-Michel bridge, a stone’s throw from the police headquarters which had organized the repression 60 years ago.

“Neither hatred nor revenge, we just want to appease the memories”

According to the authorities, at least 1,800 people demonstrated in the capital, chanting “October 17, state crime” and “Open the archives, from Paris to Algiers”. The procession left from the center of Paris and headed towards the Saint-Michel bridge which it could not reach, stopped by the police. According to the police, the demonstration was declared up to the Place du Châtelet. Only small groups were able to access the Pont au Change to throw roses in the Seine.

“In memory of all who were murdered,” said one. The call to protest was signed by dozens of organizations and associations, unions and left-wing parties. The PS mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, presidential candidate, gathered on the Saint-Michel bridge, in front of the stele “in memory of the many Algerians killed during the bloody repression” that she had inaugurated in 2019.

“It is a small step further but it is not satisfactory,” historian Gilles Manceron, one of the leaders of the League of Human Rights (LDH), told AFP in reaction to the press release. Emmanuel Macron on Saturday. “It is a recognition of a crime of the prefecture. We ask for a recognition of a state crime and real access to the archives,” added this specialist in the memory of the Algerian war, in the procession.

“It’s a gesture but we know very well that Papon did not act on his own referee. We cannot act without a political order. There was a responsibility at the top of the French state”, also insisted a 45-year-old protester, Othmane Benzaghou, activist, member of the Hirak collectives.

Other demonstrations took place elsewhere in France on Sunday, bringing together 200 people in Toulouse behind the banner “A colonial massacre”. In Strasbourg, about sixty demonstrators threw red roses in the Ill while in Bordeaux, a hundred threw white roses in the Garonne.

“We have neither hatred nor revenge, we just want to appease memories,” said AFP Saïd Boudjema, the president of the Franco-Algerian Federation Aquitaine Plus, which organized the Bordeaux tribute.

With AFP