Saturday, Emmanuel Macron took the first step.
He moved to Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), for a tribute to the victims of the bloody repression of October 17, 1961. It was there that, sixty years earlier, many bodies of Algerians came to demonstrate peacefully against a curfew, in the context of the Algerian war, were recovered from the Seine.
The president had previously announced that these crimes committed that day and perpetrated "under the authority of Maurice Papon", then prefect of police, were "inexcusable for the Republic".
This Sunday, in turn, the Paris police prefect visited another highly symbolic place of this fatal day.
At around 8:30 am, Didier Lallement went to the Saint-Michel bridge, another emblematic place of these events.
"For the first time, a police prefect lays, this Sunday, a wreath in memory of the dead of October 17, 1961, on the Saint-Michel bridge," tweeted the prefecture.
# Ceremony |
For the first time, a Prefect of Police lays, this Sunday, a wreath in memory of the dead of October 17, 1961, on the Saint-Michel bridge.
pic.twitter.com/Rcdi1bqob0
- Prefecture de Police (@prefpolice) October 17, 2021
The bell for the dead has sounded. Then a minute of silence was observed "in memory of the dead of October 17, 1961", according to the words spoken by a representative of the prefecture of police at the microphone. Didier Lallement did not speak and only stayed a few minutes on the spot. “There is progress, but it is not an acknowledgment of a state crime. I said to the president: it is the point of arrival of something and the departure of another ”, reacted Nasser Kettane, president of Beur FM, invited to the ceremony.
“Nearly 12,000 Algerians were arrested and transferred to sorting centers at the Coubertin stadium, the Palais des sports and other places.
In addition to many wounded, several dozen were killed, their bodies thrown into the Seine.
Many families have never found the remains of their loved ones, who disappeared that night, ”the French presidency recalled on Saturday.
Other gatherings are planned this Sunday afternoon, in particular at the call of the League of Human Rights (LDH) of the Rex at Pont Saint-Michel.
