On March 26, 1962, a week after the Evian Accords, French soldiers opened fire on dozens of demonstrators trying to cross a military checkpoint in the Algerian capital. The exact toll remains unknown to this day.
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Emmanuel Macron continued his series of speeches and commemorations related to the war in Algeria, Wednesday, January 26, by receiving associations of French returnees. Faced with them, the President of the Republic recognized the “massacre” of “tens” of French demonstrators, opposed to the independence of Algeria, by French soldiers, on March 26, 1962 in Algiers. This episode, known as “Rue d’Isly shooting” and which had never been recognized by France, is “unforgivable for the Republic”said the head of state.
A week after the signing of the Evian Accords and the ceasefire in Algeria, civilian protesters supporting French Algeria trying to force their way into the Bab El-Oued neighborhood in central Algiers , had been the target of fire at a roadblock held by the French army. According to various sources, the soldiers caused at least fifty deaths, all civilians.
“That day, the French soldiers deployed against employment, badly commanded, fired on French people (…) That day, it was a massacre”insisted Emmanuel Macron during his speech on Wednesday.
The President of the Republic also mentioned the massacre of July 5, 1962 in Oran, a few hours before the official proclamation of the independence of Algeria. “Hundreds of Europeans, mainly French”, were then killed. He must “he too must be looked in the face and recognized”, said Emmanuel Macron in a possible appeal to the Algerian authorities. The testimonies implicate in particular Algerian police auxiliaries and members of the National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the FLN.
This recognition is part of a series of memorial acts since the beginning of the five-year term and as the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian war approaches. Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the responsibility of the French army in the death of Maurice Audin and the nationalist lawyer Ali Boumendjel, denounced the “inexcusable crimes” of the police during the massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Paris in 1961, and asked “sorry” to harkis. A bill attempting to “to fix” their damage is under consideration in Parliament.