Thousands of people demonstrated in Paris asking President Nicolas Sarkozy to recognise the responsibility of the French colonial army in the massacres against the Algerians on the 8th May 1945 in various Algerian regions including Setif, Guelma and Kheratta, east of Algeria.

• Demonstrators, who responded to the call of the French “Movement of Republic Natives”, an association including French activists against racism, discrimination and slavery, moved across the streets of Paris carrying a large banner that read “we are here because you were there”, in an implicit reference to the responsibility of the France in the presence of former colonies today on the French soil.
• Houria Boutheldja, spokesman of the movement said, “ The French Vichy government partner of the Nazi regime fell on this day, but in the same day it committed ugly massacres in Setif”.
• Houria strongly criticized the use of excessive force by the French police to counter the Algerians who claimed their political human rights after France promised them freedom before World War II.
• Politicians were among the demonstrators, including members of the French senate such as Halima Boumediene Thierry, who called on Paris to recognise the genocide committed in Algeria, rejecting the existence of gaps in the French memory.
• In parallel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to the former French colonies including thousands of Algerians who were recruited by force, landing the south of France 65 years ago to help defeat the Nazis in a so-called “The forgotten day of the landing”.