October 17, 1961: demonstration in Paris for the recognition of a "state crime"
Audio 01:14
The demonstrators who commemorated the 60 years of the massacre of October 17, 1961 by demanding justice and reparation in a march going from the Grand Rex to the Pont Saint-Michel, on Sunday October 17, 2017, in Paris.
© Alain Jocard, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The day after the recognition of French President Emmanuel Macron of "
crimes inexcusable for the Republic
", the associations organized this Sunday a march in honor of the victims of October 17, 1961 in Paris, when hundreds of Algerians were killed by the French police.
60 years to the day after the tragedy, the demonstrators demanded justice and reparations, going from the Grand Rex cinema to the Pont Saint-Michel.
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“
State Crime
, October 17
”.
This slogan, chanted by the participants in the march in tribute to the Algerians killed while demonstrating in Paris, sums up
the main demands of the descendants of the victims
.
For this daughter of survivors, the Prefect of Police at the time, Maurice Papon, was not the only person responsible for this bloody repression: “
The French State was also responsible, Papon had people above him!
They knew very well.
He could not have done what he did without the approval of the French government.
There was a Prime Minister, a Minister of the Interior and a President
: we let it happen.
"
“
We don't throw people like that into the Seine
!
"
It is this “
laissez-faire
” that this Parisian denounces.
She calls herself French, but not an accomplice: "
It was a butcher's shop, a massacre
: we don't throw people like that into the Seine
!"
When you're human, you can't condone that sort of thing.
It is a state crime, there is no other word.
"
The descendants of the Algerian victims demand justice and reparation, which, according to them, is only possible
if the French state recognizes its responsibility
in this tragic event of October 17, 1961.
For Samia Messaoudi of the association "In the name of history", October 17, 1961 "was a suffering for the Algerian community, but also for France and those who love justice"
Aram Mbengue
►
To read and listen also:
Massacre of October 17, 1961: 60 years of struggle for the recognition of a state crime
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