The 17th of October marked the 60th anniversary of the massacre of officially 48 Algerians killed by French police during protests in 1961.
Many historians estimate the number of murdered protesters to be as high as 200, victims of massive police violence only that night. Protests by thousands of Algerians fighting for Algerian independence from France began in Paris as early as September. At least 120 Algerians have already been murdered during these protests.
On the day of 17 October 1961, thousands of women, men and children from the suburbs of Paris made their way to the Champs-Elysee to demonstrate against a night curfew that the bourgeois French government had introduced in France from the 5th of October 1961 under the pretext of combating the activities of the FLN (Front Liberation National, Algerian independence organisation). Increasing violence by Harkis (pro-French Algerians) and the French police, who kept harassing people, also drove the masses into the streets.
30,000 protesters faced about 10,000 police that evening who used brutal force against them. Many protesters were driven into the Seine, the police beat them indiscriminately, many were pulled to the ground by the crowds and lay under the running masses. In a 1997 court case against the then police chief Papon, who had already collaborated with the Nazis during World War 2, it was said that the police opened fire on people on his command and threw their bodies into the Seine.
About 12,000 Algerians were taken to camps, some before the demonstration, where they were mistreated or deported to Algeria.
This year there was a commemorative demonstration in Paris demanding recognition of the crimes committed against Algerians living in France.
