Tomorrow, Sunday, marks the anniversary of a massacre committed by the French police against criminal civilians who demonstrated in Paris 60 years ago, calling for the independence of their country.

While French President Emmanuel Macron admitted to acknowledging the "truth" by laying a wreath at the place, the Algerian government strongly criticized France's involvement in "repression and abuse, while at the same time falsely claiming to defend human rights."

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced "unjustifiable crimes for the republic", following an official ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the killing of Algerian demonstrators on October 17, 1961 in Paris.

A statement from the Elysee said that the head of state "confessed the facts. The crimes that were committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon (the Paris police chief at that time) are unjustifiable for the Republic."

The ceremony was held on the banks of the Seine, near the Bison Bridge, which was taken sixty years ago by Algerian demonstrators who arrived from the neighboring poor Nanterre, at the invitation of the branch of the National Liberation Front in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron went further than his predecessor, Francois Hollande, admitted in 2012 the "bloody repression," AFP reported.

A source in the Elysee stated that Macron is the first president in the Fifth Republic to go to a place of memory where this memory will be commemorated.

Earlier, the Elysee said that Macron "will cross the threshold of acknowledgment of what happened and deal with the truth of the facts."

corpses in the river

This fact dates back to October 17, 1961, when the French police, by order of the Paris police chief, Maurice Papon, attacked a peaceful demonstration of thousands of Algerians, who came out to demand the independence of the country.

It deliberately killed dozens of them in the streets and subway stations, and threw a number of the wounded into the Seine, which led to their death, which became known as the Paris massacre in 1961.

By the way, the Algerian Ministry of Information published a statement saying, "These civilian demonstrators were subjected to the worst forms of oppression, abuse, torture and assassination."

The statement explained that the repression left in one day 300 martyrs - including women, children and the elderly - in a country that markets itself - slanderously and falsely - the role of a human rights defender.


France recognizes only 3 deaths in the crackdown, while historical sources confirm dozens of deaths.

In turn, the Minister of the Mujahideen in Algeria, Eid Rabiqa, published a tweet in which he said: On the eve of the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the October 17 demonstrations, we remember that crime against humanity against the members of our community in the diaspora.

"It is another witness to the fall of the human values ​​of the French colonialists, and it is one of the stations of the struggle and the struggle of our proud and struggling people," he added.

And yesterday, Friday, the Algerian Al-Shorouk website quoted an official as confirming that the families of the victims of these massacres decided to sue France before international courts so that this crime would not go unpunished.

Today, Saturday, the People's National Assembly (the first chamber of Parliament) organized a discussion symposium on these crimes under the title "The river is still blood in the eyes of Algerians", in reference to the Seine River in which the Algerian demonstrators threw Paris.

stain

In the opening speech of the symposium, Council President Ibrahim Bogaly said, "These massacres will remain a disgrace on the forehead of the French colonizer."

This anniversary comes amid strained relations between France and Algeria. A few days ago, Macron accused the Algerian authorities of harboring a grudge against France.

Macron questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before France's colonization of Algeria (1830-1962), as he wondered whether there was an Algerian nation before French colonization?

The Algerian presidency responded by announcing that it had summoned the Algerian ambassador to Paris for consultations, in protest against these statements, which it said were offensive and represent an unacceptable insult to the memory of more than 5 million resistance fighters killed by French colonialism.

Algeria also closed its airspace to French military aircraft operating as part of Operation Barkhane in the African Sahel region.