Macron Calls Massacre of Algerians an Unforgivable Crime

PARIS – President French Emmanuel Macron bloody crackdown on original protesters Aljazair by the police in Paris 60 years ago as an unforgivable crime. This is the strongest acknowledgment by a French president of the massacre in which many bodies were dumped into the River Seine.

On 17 October 1961, under orders from then Paris police chief Maurice Papon, police attacked a demonstration by 25,000 Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) supporters protesting the curfew imposed on Algeria.

“The demonstrations were suppressed “brutally, violently and bloody,” Macron’s office said in a statement Reuters, Sunday (17/10/2021).

Also read: Macron admits France massacred Algerians in Paris in 1961

The statement added that about 12,000 Algerians were arrested, many injured and dozens dead.

Macron attended a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the event on a bridge in Bezons, west of Paris, where some Algerians began their demonstrations and where many bodies were found in the River Seine.

“He acknowledged the fact: the crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic,” read a statement from the Elysee Palace.

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The massacre, which took place during the war against French rule in Algeria, has long been denied or hidden by French authorities. The first anniversary of the event was organized in 2001 by the Mayor of Paris.

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