Le Figaro Marseille
“My brother died not far from here.”
Dalila's gaze is lost in space.
Sitting at a café in a shopping center in the northern districts of Marseille, she pauses before quickly telling the story of the man who was four years her senior.
His addiction first, to heroin.
“From the first shoot, he never got away with it again
. ”
Dalila remembers her very rapid slide into delinquency, enlisted by drug traffickers.
The trips to prison, the lure of profit, but also his cries for help to try to escape drug addiction.
Until that tragic day when he was shot in the back.
He was 31 years old.
That day wasn't yesterday.
It was May 1996. Almost thirty years ago
.
“And since then, nothing has changed
,” she says indignantly.
Dalila is one of the signatories of a unique column published last weekend in
Libération
.
In this text, several relatives of victims of deaths linked to drug trafficking in Marseille, whose words are rare, demand a war memorial in memory of these young people killed by bullets.
Among the signatories is Soucayna's mother, this young woman who died last September, the victim of a stray bullet while she was in her room in a Marseille city.
“We want a commemorative place in our city,”
ask the signatories.
It could heal collective wounds and open up possible hope: give the possibility to families who wish it, young people, those not so young who are mourning the loss of a sister, a brother, a friend, an uncle. of a mother or even a father to reflect.”
Also read: In Marseille, drug traffickers employ hitmen to settle their scores
“It should be a national mourning”
“Many families of victims do not speak because they are afraid of judgment or what people will say,”
argues Hassen Hammou.
The spokesperson for EELV in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur founded around ten years ago, after the murder of a friend, the collective Too young to die, which carried out the project of this forum in the press.
“Some can say that they looked for it and that we are not going to make a memorial for them,”
laments Hassen Hammou.
But a victim remains a victim.
No one deserves to die from bullets.”
“It would also mean that our dead are considered,”
believes Dalila
.
Former mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin said that it didn't concern him as long as young people were killing each other.
But this monument is also respect for our dead, because ultimately, it is not just the deaths of the families affected
, proclaims Dalila
.
These are our deaths, as citizens, as responsible adults.
These are kids who are minors, in the end!
They are children.
Where is our responsibility?
“It should be a national mourning because, like my brother, these deaths are the victims of a well-crafted system.”
The leaders of this project also believe in the educational value of such an initiative, which would make it possible to no longer relegate these young people to oblivion... and to dissuade others from following in their footsteps.
“We ask that from CM1, teachers talk to children about drug trafficking.
With this monument to the dead, they would have a support to tell them where it is leading..."
The shape of this monument remains to be determined for the time being.
“We have contacted the town hall and we are waiting for this work to start
,” confides Hassen Hammou.
When contacted, the Marseille town hall confirmed that it had received the families of the victims on this point.
“We take note of this proposal,”
the municipality informed Le
Figaro
.
We cannot be unfavorable or favorable.
The proposal will be studied.”
In 2023, 49 people died in killings linked to drug trafficking in Marseille, including seven minors.