Participants in a conference held Wednesday in Algiers, as part of the commemoration of National Emigration Day, described the October 17, 1961 massacres as one of the most violent repressions of peaceful protests in modern history.
The conference, organized by the Association Machaal Echahid and the daily El-Moudjahid, highlighted that the massacres of October 17, 1961, in which approximately 30,000 to 40,000 Algerians living in France participated, constitute a heinous crime, often classified as a crime against humanity.
Speakers emphasized the extreme violence of the French colonial authorities’ response to the peaceful demonstrations.
Academic and researcher Said Mokaddem stated that the October 17, 1961 massacres represent “one of the most violent repressions of peaceful demonstrations in history” and can be considered a “state crime.” He noted the French authorities’ efforts to obscure the true number of victims and protect police officers from legal accountability for these atrocities.
Mokaddem stressed that commemorating this date serves to preserve the memory of the martyrs of the Seine.
Mokaddem also highlighted that colonial France passed amnesty laws, shielding not only the perpetrators of these crimes but also supporters of French Algeria and members of the Secret Armed Organization (OAS).
He recalled that Algerians in Paris demonstrated peacefully to protest a discriminatory curfew imposed solely on their community.
The colonial authorities responded with extreme violence, using live ammunition, torture, and drowning protesters in the Seine River, with no distinction made between men, women, or children.
