Paris: a stele in tribute to the Algerian victims of October 17, 1961

Paris (AFP)

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Thursday inaugurated a memorial stele "to better honor" the victims of the bloody repression of the demonstration of Algerians on October 17, 1961, said an AFP journalist.

That day, more than 20,000 Algerians defy, at the call of the National Liberation Front (FLN), the curfew imposed on them in the capital. The situation degenerates and demonstrators - from a few tens to more than 200 according to the sources - are killed by gunshots with pickaxes or rifle butts and thrown into the Seine by the police.

"It's the story of Paris, our story, that of a city that does not accept this type of repression, that we can kill women and men because they were demonstrating peacefully for a cause," he said. said Anne Hidalgo, after a brief ceremony, presents a few dozen guests and so many spectators, many of whom waved Algerian flags.

The socialist mayor of Paris unveiled on the Saint-Michel bridge, which was one of the emblematic places of the repression of 1961, with the secretary general of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rachid Bladehane, a steel stele, representing the silhouettes hollowed out of protesters, standing out against the waters of the Seine.

It overcomes a plaque filed in 2001, "in memory of the many Algerians killed during the bloody suppression of the peaceful demonstration of October 17, 2001".

"Every October 17 is celebrated to pay tribute to the martyrs of Algerian independence," said Fodil Merakeb, the henna-tinted beard who waved a sign in memory of his cousin, who died during the 1961 demonstration.

"They came to protest in peace, men, women and children, and they were massacred, thrown into the water at 7 degrees," said Abdelmalek Hamchaoui, head of the collective Nanterre of October 17, 1961.

The Saint-Michel bridge is located close to the Paris police headquarters, which organized the repression of the demonstration during the war that led to the independence of Algeria in 1962.

The FLN had called on Algerians to brave this curfew, described as "racist" and hampering its activities. The police are submerged and clashes begin. More than 12,000 protesters are arrested.

In 2012, the Socialist President Francois Hollande recognized the "tragedy" that constituted the "bloody" repression of the demonstration of October 17, 1961.

© 2019 AFP