SOS Racism posters.

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LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP

"Avenue du criminal Bugeaud", "avenue des enfumades": SOS Racisme hijacked the plaques on the Parisian artery on Friday morning bearing the name of the French general responsible for the death of many Algerians in the 19th century.

At around 6:30 a.m., five members and activists of the organization were deployed on the avenue located in the 16th arrondissement of the capital to affix hijacked street signs on existing ones.

General Thomas Robert Bugeaud (1784-1849) took part in the conquest of Algeria by France and is notably known for having supported the use of the "scorched earth policy" and the "smoky" technique. consisting in suffocating people who had taken refuge in a cave.

"We decided not to wait for a political decision" on a name change "which could take time as the resistance fighters can be strong on the subject", explained Valentin Stel, member of SOS Racism.

Paris City Hall listening

"It is not a question of coming to vandalize or rename according to our own taste an avenue which bears the name of Bugeaud but to come to specify who was this character who was nothing other than a war criminal".

Monuments and statues linked to French colonial history have been at the center of a memorial controversy since the death of George Floyd, an African-American suffocated by a white policeman in the United States in 2020, which has been followed by appeals for to unbolt certain statues and to rename certain streets.

In a recent interview with

Monde Afrique

, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of memory Laurence Patrice indicated that she was "in favor of the idea of ​​studying precisely the case" of avenue Bugeaud.

"This person today would be in The Hague" before the International Criminal Court, estimated Valentin Stel, deeming "scandalous that we continue to pay tribute to a figure like that in France in 2021".

Emmanuel Macron had warned last year that "the Republic will not erase [it] any trace or any name of its history" and that it will "not unbolt [it] no statue" and called to "lucidly look together at all" the History of France.

The Head of State, who has made several gestures to "reconcile the memories" between French and Algerians since the beginning of the year, at the same time called for the honor in the streets of France of "heroes from the diversity ”and immigration, a first list of which was unveiled last week.

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