October 17, French unpunished crimes

October 17th 1961, hundreds of Algerians at the time under the French occupation, took to the streets of Paris to break the curfew imposed on Arabs by the French administration since October 5th.

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• The National Liberation Front (FLN) activists decided to peacefully march in Paris to denounce the racist curfew. They were followed by the majority Algerians living in France.
• More than 200 demonstrators were killed and dozens reported missing in one day. The Paris Police resorted to extreme violence to repress the demonstrators, according to historians.
• The French prominent researcher Jean Luc Einaudi confirms in his book “the Battle Of Paris” that the Police superintendent Mauris Papon gave firm instructions to heavily strike Algerians in the streets to prevent them from marching in favour of the FLN.
• Einaudi and other historians speak about more than 200 deaths among the Algerian community. The number of missing people is unknown. The police also arrested 11500 people including women and children.
• The Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez was among the people who were interrogated by the police in those events. He was visiting Paris.
• However official reports record two deaths only. Hospitals and police administration documents totally ignore those criminal acts. They do not refer to them.
• The victims’ bodies were simply  thrown in the Seine River, say historians and witnesses. It was a deliberate killing systematically conducted by the government of the time against Algerians.
• A growing number of historians and intellectuals in France including Einaudi, call on the French government to recognize those crimes to end impunity.