French officials introduce bill to take responsibility for 1961 Paris massacre

Seventy-eight French deputies have introduced a bill to the French National Assembly that will see France publicly acknowledge its responsibility for the massacre of Algerians in Paris on 17 October 1961.

The bill states that “France publicly recognises its responsibility in the massacres of 17 October 1961, caused by the French police’s repression against Algerian demonstrators demanding independence for their country.”

The left-wing MPs in support of the bill, including Patrick Menucci, Kader Arif and Benoit Hamon, called on the National Assembly to seize the “opportunity for this draft law so that France, through its parliament, admits, lucidly, this extremely dark episode of its history.”

“Algerians who had demonstrated in Paris for their country’s right to independence were terribly repressed by French police under the authority of Maurice Papon.”

“By acknowledging the bloody nature of this repression on 17 October 2012, President François Hollande opened the way for the recognition of those massacres by the French Parliament,” they added.

For the MPs, recognition of the massacre of Algerians is likely to allow for the building of a “stable and united EU-Mediterranean space.”

On 17 October 1961, 30,000 to 40,000 Algerians demonstrated for their self-determination on the streets of Paris. They were met with gunfire from police officers on the Neuilly Bridge with those injured and killed thrown from the bridge into the River Seine below.

Around 200-300 Algerians died as a result of police repression.