French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as “inexcusable” a deadly crackdown by Paris police on a 1961 protest by Algerians.
Macron acknowledged the “crimes” committed on the night of October 17, 1961 by police, whose scale was a taboo covered up for decades by French authorities.
The president told relatives and activists on the 60th anniversary of the massacre that several dozen protestors were killed, “their bodies thrown into the River Seine.”
His comments that crimes were committed went further than predecessor Francois Hollande, who acknowledged in 2012 that the protesting Algerians had been “killed during a bloody repression”.
Macron “recognized the facts: that the crimes committed that night under Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic,” the Elysee said.
“This tragedy was long hushed-up, denied or concealed,” it added.
Macron is the first French president to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the police crackdown.
He paid tribute to the victims and observed a minute of silence in their memory at the Bezons bridge over the Seine on the outskirts of Paris where the protest started.
However, as expected, he did not issue a formal apology, nor did he give a public speech, with the Elysee issuing only the written statement.
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