On the table, next to the flowers and sweets, sits a portrait of Aïssa, a little boy.
On this sunny Saturday afternoon, at the Painters Square in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines), around thirty people came to pay homage to Aïssa Ihich, thirty years after her death.
The 18-year-old young man who lived in the Val-Fourré district, died on May 27, 1991, of an asthma attack while he was in police custody in a cell at the Mantes-la-police station. Pretty one.
Family, friends, those relatives who had not seen each other for sometimes thirty years wanted to honor the memory of their "little brother".
Some have left from Val-Fourré, others have stayed, and still others, like Sonia, have returned.
Aïssa's big sister is present with her three children, "my eldest and my youngest are the spitting portraits of Aïssa", she smiles.
"We are not here to argue"
“The idea is not to forget Aïssa, even if it happened thirty years ago.
Above all, it is important to come together.
Here, it's family.
It is true that the gathering is more like a family reunion with members who have not seen each other for a long time.
At the initiative of the meeting, Younès Zaouiya, a former resident of the neighborhood.
The fifty-year-old who lost his brother Jawad in 1996 in a prison fire, insists: "We are not here to argue, we are here for the duty of memory".
Also, with his association Mémoire pour Jawad Zaouiya, he does prevention with young people to avoid new tragedies.
In May 1991, while riots had shaken the city for two days, Aïssa Ihich was arrested for having stoned a police car.
Placed in custody, he could not have access to his medication to treat his asthma because the guards at the police station had refused to provide him with his Ventolin.
Riots throughout the department and beyond
The news of his death had aroused intense emotion in the cities of Mantes-la-Jolie.
Night after night, riots had broken out, with violent clashes between young people and the police also in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Achères, Sartrouville, but also Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d'Oise), Aulnay-sous- Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) or Meaux (Seine-et-Marne).
A few days later, a policewoman stationed at a roadblock at the entrance to Val-Fourré was fatally hit by a car.
In the same place, a few minutes later, one of the occupants of a vehicle that was driving towards a roadblock was shot dead.
A photo of Aïssa Ihich as a child was exhibited by her relatives during the rally.
LP / Jeanne Cassard
Result: three deaths in two weeks and an entire city that has become the symbol of hot suburbs.
Image from which it will take years to recover.
Ten years later, a trial finally takes place.
Verdict: the two police officers and the doctor responsible for Aïssa's death will be sentenced to suspended prison sentences.
They remember the events of 1991 very well. "Aïssa was a good living person, he always had a smile, he could have gone far and be an example of success", according to Messonia (the first name has been changed), a old classmate.
The young man who wanted to do medicine "was absolutely not a delinquent".
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For Najat (the first name has been changed), who grew up in Val-Fourré, “it's as if it was yesterday and the scar is still there”.
Thirty years later, the two women feel “both sadness and injustice”.
And thirty years later, they find that "the police still take too many risks to question young people".
"There was a before and an after"
Mohamed was nine years old when Aïssa died.
He did not know the victim but lived in Val-Fourré.
Since then, the thirty-something has left the neighborhood for a residential area on the other side of the city.
“I see people I haven't met for decades, we have a duty to remember Aïssa.
"
On the riots of 1991, he remembers that "we saw everything that was happening live on television, it was strange".
Mohamed remembers the events less than the consequences, "there was a before and an after," he says.
After Aïssa's death in May 1991, riots broke out for several nights in Val-Fourré, but also in other municipalities.
LP
Following the looting of the Leclerc supermarket, almost all the shops in the shopping arcade had closed.
"There was only one bakery left, the others have lowered the curtain."
Today the town hall of the Val-Fourré district is held instead.
“After all these tragedies, the neighborhood has changed enormously,” continues Lyes (the first name has been changed).
Five towers were razed to replace a swimming pool, a square or a mosque.
“At the time, the Painters district had 7,000 inhabitants.
20% of the population was concentrated in 2% of the territory of the city.
“Currently, the city has around 22,000 inhabitants.
Above all, “before, there were a lot of dead ends.
The Val-Fourré, we knew how to get in but not how to get out, it was a real labyrinth ”.
Today, much more accessible, the district awaits the arrival of the RER E in 2024.