Emmanuel Macron was the first French President to take part in a memorial for the victims of the 1961 massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Paris.

It was "unforgivable crimes for the republic," said the Elysée Palace after the ceremony on Saturday.

The "tragedy" had long been covered up.

Macron made no speech, but spoke to relatives of the victims after a minute's silence and a wreath-laying ceremony at a bridge over the Seine.

On October 17, 1961, numerous Algerians demonstrating for the independence of their country were killed in the bloody crackdown on the protests in the French capital. Historians speak of dozens or even hundreds of deaths, according to official data from then there were three. It was not until 2012 that the then French head of state, the socialist François Hollande, officially recognized the bloodbath.

Tens of thousands of Algerians took part in the protests on October 17, 1961.

The Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) called for the demonstration in the middle of the Algerian War of Independence.

The protests were directed against a night curfew imposed on “Muslim Algerians” in Paris.

Security forces shot and beat protesters and threw some into the Seine.

The then police prefect of Paris, Maurice Papon, spoke of only three dead and 64 injured after the massacre and said that the police had acted in self-defense.

Denied and veiled

In a conversation with victims' relatives, Macron “acknowledged the facts” and described the “crimes committed under Maurice Papon that night” as “unforgivable for the republic,” said the Elysée Palace.

For a long time, the massacre was "kept silent, denied or veiled".

Bachir Ben-Aissa Saadi, who took part in the protests 60 years ago as a 14-year-old, reported shattering memories.

"There were corpses everywhere, I was very scared," he said.

Algeria's President Abdelmadjidn Tebboune said, according to a statement from his office, that what happened on October 17, 1961 was a symbol of the horror "of the massacres and crimes against humanity that remain burned into our collective memories".

There is a “strong need to deal with history without complacency” and without “arrogant colonialist ideas”.

Macron's words a "progress"

Macron is the first French president born after the end of the colonial era.

The statements of the head of state on the massacre of the Algerian demonstrators are "progress" and go "far" beyond the words of his predecessor Hollande nine years ago, historian Emmanuel Blanchard told the AFP news agency.

However, Blanchard criticized the fact that Macron had attributed responsibility to Papon alone.

Neither the then Prime Minister Michel Debré nor the then President Charles de Gaulle had ever been held responsible for covering up the massacre.

Criticism too

Anti-racism activists were disappointed with Macron's choice of words.

"We were hoping for more," said Mimouna Hadjam from the Africa93 organization.

“Papon did not act alone.

People were tortured and massacred in the middle of Paris, and those at the top knew about it. ”The head of SOS Racism, Domonique Sopo, welcomed Macron's statements.

However, he also complained about a policy of “small steps” in coming to terms with the past and a lack of admission of responsibility.

Papon remained the police prefect of Paris until 1967.

In the 1980s it became known that he had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II and had been involved in the deportation of Jews.

In 1998 he was sentenced to ten years in prison for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, but was released early.