From Kabul to Paris, France pays tribute to victims of terrorism
French Ambassador David Martinon pays tribute to the victims of terrorism in Kabul on March 11, 2021 © Embassy of France in Kabul
Text by: RFI Follow
9 mins
Several ceremonies were held this Thursday, March 11 in tribute to the victims of terrorism.
A national commemoration whose date, March 11, was chosen by several European associations in reference to the Madrid attack in 2004.
Publicity
Read more
Half of the victims of terrorism in the world are in Afghanistan.
For the second year in a row, the French Embassy in Kabul has honored the memory of the victims of terrorism in this Central Asian country torn by war for more than four decades, and which has faced a Taliban insurgency since 2001 as well as 'attacks by the Islamic State group since 2015.
This Thursday, the portraits of several victims were thus placed on trestles in the courtyard of the French Embassy, a few meters from the stele in tribute to the French who died in Afghanistan: 90 soldiers as well as aid workers, journalists and their staff. Afghan colleagues who fell by their side, reports our correspondent in Kabul,
Sonia Ghezali.
Ambassador David Martinon gave the names of the victims, including photographer
Shah Marai,
journalist Sardar Ahmad and driver Mohamad Akhtar, all employees of Agence France-Presse in Kabul and killed in various attacks.
Also among the victims,
Johanne Sutton
, our colleague from RFI fell under the bullets of the Taliban in the north of the country on November 11, 2001, with Pierre Billaud, colleague of RTL.
Afghanistan, a country where France has maintained its presence for nearly a century, recalled the ambassador: “
This relationship between our two countries, between our two peoples, has been nurtured by people who have taken reckless risks. by coming here, who carried out their commitment, whether it is a humanitarian commitment or their work as a journalist.
I also have a thought for the guards of the French Embassy who were killed in 1992 in a rocket fire.
"
"
All these people, it is a duty and an honor to honor them
", concluded David Martinon before the sound of the Marseillaise, prelude to a minute of silence as a last tribute.
A ceremony for the victims of terrorism in Kabul: listen to the report by our correspondent Sonia Ghezali
Macron at Les Invalides and Dammartin-en-Goële
In Paris too, several events were organized on Thursday.
Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony at the Invalides in Paris in the morning.
Surrounded by his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, the French Head of State laid a wreath in front of the
La Parole Portage
statue
, representing a beheaded woman, dedicated to the victims of the attacks.
A very sober ceremony, without official speech, as had been agreed, says Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, director general and founder of the French Association of Victims of Terrorism, at the microphone of RFI.
“
The interest of this commemoration is for the victims, but also to recreate the link between the victims and society.
We cannot rebuild ourselves if we are in denial of what happened and what happened concerns society as a whole,
”he explains.
In terms of supporting victims of terrorism, France has made enormous efforts in recent years, but there are still things to do ...
Guillaume Denoix of Saint Mark
Emmanuel Macron then went to the Catalano printing house in Dammartin-en-Goële, in the Paris region, to meet Michel Catalano, who had been taken hostage by the Kouachi brothers during their run after the
Charlie Hebdo
attack.
in 2015
The printer, a calm and serious fifty-something, showed the president the traces of the assault of the gendarmes who shot the two attackers, on the run after sowing death in the editorial staff of the satirical newspaper two days earlier.
To testify to this violence, he left intact, in the parking lot of his company, a car riddled with bullets that he wants to donate to the future
museum of victims of terrorism
.
Michel Catalano also showed him a photo of the team, with a bullet hole, and the kitchenette where his employee Lilian Lepère had hidden, under the sink.
Several hundred French victims
This National Day of Homage to the Victims of Terrorism, enacted in 2019, is being organized for the second year in a row.
Since January 2015, the attacks have left more than 260 dead in France, the deadliest having been those of November 13, 2015 with 130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis, and that of July 14, 2016 in Nice (86 dead).
In total, more than 6,300 victims and relatives have been supported by the Victims Guarantee Fund (FGTI) since 2015. "
The terrorist threat remains high,
" said the Elysee, recalling that 33 attacks have since been foiled. 2017.
►
To read also
: Day of tribute to the victims of terrorism: where is the threat?
■ Reduced tribute to Madrid
A ceremony was also planned at Atocha, the station in the Spanish capital where the bomb-trapped commuter train should have arrived, on March 11, 2004. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tribute was reduced to a short ceremony in the Retiro Memorial Wood in Madrid.
“
Sixteen years have passed since the worst attack in our history.
The victims, those who lost their lives and those who live with
[this]
horror every day, remain in our memory.
Today and forever,
”wrote Pedro Sanchez on the Twitter network.
Han pasado 17 años de esa mañana en la que nos despertamos con el ruido del terror.
El # 11M marcó nuestras vidas y la historia de todo un país.
Hoy, nuestra memoria está con las víctimas de aquellos atentados.
Hoy, les recordamos con la certeza de que el odio nunca es el camino.
pic.twitter.com/RPQ91XgcyB
- Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) March 11, 2021
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
France
Afghanistan
Spain
Terrorism