The shooting in the rue d'Isly in Algiers in 1962 is "unforgivable for the Republic".
Emmanuel Macron made a "memorial gesture", this Wednesday, towards the returnees from Algeria, recognizing the "massacre" that was the shooting of the rue d'Isly in Algiers, in which dozens of supporters of Algeria French soldiers were killed by the army in March 1962. he confessed.
A week after the signing of the Evian Accords and the ceasefire, on March 19, 1962, in Algeria, civilian demonstrators in favor of French Algeria who were trying to force their way through the Bab El-Oued district, in the center of Algiers, were machine-gunned at a roadblock held by the French army.
The shooting, which lasted more than a quarter of an hour, caused, according to various sources, at least fifty deaths, all civilians, among the demonstrators.
The shooting in the rue d'Isly marked the beginning of the exodus of the Pieds-noirs from Algeria.
"The massacre of July 5, 1962" in Oran must be "recognized", also urged Emmanuel Macron, during his speech.
Already several memorial acts
This "recognition" is part of a series of memorial acts, since the beginning of the five-year term and as we approach the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian war with the Evian Accords and then the independence of this country. on July 5, 1962. On September 14, 2018, Emmanuel Macron thus acknowledged, "in the name of the French Republic", that the young communist mathematician Maurice Audin had been "tortured to death, or tortured and then executed by the French army" in 1957.
On March 3, 2021, he acknowledged that the nationalist lawyer Ali Boumendjel had been "tortured and murdered" on March 23, 1957 by the French army, contradicting the initial version of a suicide.
On September 20, 2021, the Head of State asked "forgiveness" to the harkis, Algerian auxiliaries to the French army, who were "abandoned" by France.
A bill, recording this "pardon" and attempting to "repair" the damage suffered, is currently being examined in Parliament and should be adopted by the end of February.
Emmanuel Macron also denounced "inexcusable crimes for the Republic" during the 60th anniversary of the massacre by the French police of Algerian demonstrators on October 17, 1961 in Paris.
"The objective remains the same, to ultimately build a peaceful, shared memory, common to all that have been until then the memories linked to the Algerian war and to colonization", by recognizing the "singularity of each “, underlined the Elysée, before this speech, this Wednesday.