The day before, Emmanuel Macron stated that “the crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic”.
Le Monde with AFP.
The Paris Police Prefect, Didier Lallement, filed a wreath of flowers near the Seine, Sunday, October 17 in the morning, sixty years for the day after the massacre of Algerians under the authority of the prefect of police From the time, Maurice Papon.
At the moment when Didier Lallement has deposited the sheaf of flowers at the Saint-Michel bridge, shortly after 8 hours, the ringtone to the dead resonated. Then a minute of silence was respected “in memory of the dead of October 17, 1961”, according to the words pronounced by a representative of the prefecture of police. Didier Lallement, the first prefect of police in Paris to pay tribute to the victims, did not speak.
Saturday, Emmanuel Macron said through a statement that “the crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic”.
“The repression was brutal, violent, bloody. Nearly 12,000 Algerians were arrested and transferred to sorting centers at Pierre-de-Coubetin Stadium, at the Palais des Sports and in other places. In addition to many wounded. , several tens were killed, their bodies thrown into the Seine. Many families have never found the remains of their loved ones, disappeared that night. The President of the Republic honors the memory of all the victims. ” / p>
A new gesture but “not enough”
Unpublished gesture for a French president, Mr. Macron participated Saturday at a tribute on the banks of the Seine, at the height of the Bezons Bridge. This bridge had been borrowed, sixty years ago, by the Algerian protesters who arrived from Nanterre’s neighboring bidonville to the call of the National Liberation Front (FLN) in France. The Chairman went to deposit a sheaf, then observed a minute of silence, before discussing with relatives of victims. On the other hand, he has not kept speeches.
Militants regretted that the President did not really recognize, as they ask, a “state crime”. That Mr. Macron denounces “inexcusable crimes” perpetrated that night against these Algerians who have peacefully manifest in the capital against a curfew “is not enough”, lamented Rahim Rezigat, 81 years old, former of the Federation of the Federation France of the FLN. Mr. Macron “plays on the words in relation to his electorate, including the nostalgic French Algeria,” said the activist during debates organized in Paris by SOS-Racism and bringing together actors of this bloody page of history of France and young people from Ile-de-France.
For his part, Dominique Sopo, the president of SOS-Racism, pointed out with the France-Presse Agency “of the advanced welcome”, while regretting “the chillosity of Emmanuel Macron” and his “small politics of small not “. The “crime is reduced to the responsibility of Maurice Papon. He was not a state in the state,” said the associative leader, “there was a leader of the government and a head of state who decided who was Prefect of police. Papon remained in office until 1967 “, again reminded Mr. Sopo.
The words of the Elysée are “an advance, but it is still partial. We hoped more. Papon did not act alone. We were tortured, we massacred in the heart of Paris and up there, They were aware, “reacted for his part Mimouna Hadjam, spokesman for the AFRICA 93 association who also claims the” recognition of a state crime “.
A demonstration in particular call from the League of Human Rights is scheduled Sunday afternoon in Paris, Rex at Pont Saint-Michel.