Don’t forget. French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday honored the memory of the Algerians killed or injured during the independence demonstrations of October 17, 1961, “inexcusable facts for the Republic”, while calling for “designing the future” of Franco-Algerian relations, always tense.
“France remembers the dead, the injured, the victims. Of these inexcusable facts for the Republic,” declared the Head of State on his X account, on the 63rd anniversary of these demonstrations in Paris.
According to historians, alongside many injured, between thirty and 200 demonstrators were killed and their bodies thrown into the Seine, during these abuses committed under the authority of prefect Maurice Papon. These Algerians were demonstrating for the independence of their country.
“With lucidity, we look History in the face, to shape the future,” added Emmanuel Macron, in what appears to be an outstretched hand towards his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a few days before a state visit to Morocco end of October. Because diplomatic relations between France and Algeria have become strained again since the announcement of reinforced support from Paris for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
This former Spanish colony is de facto controlled mainly by Morocco, but it is claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers. Also on Thursday, the Human Rights League demanded in a press release “the full recognition of this dark episode of our colonial past”, regretting that “its full recognition as a state crime has still not occurred”.
Video“We will gain nothing from it”: Algerians mixed as Macron’s visit approaches
The LDH called for a rally at 6 p.m. “on the Pont Saint-Michel which was one of the main sites of this massacre”.
