On October 17, 1961, several dozen Algerians were massacred in Paris by Maurice Papon’s police. The exact death toll is not known. But that day, some 30,000 Algerians took to the streets to demonstrate peacefully at the call of the FLN (National Liberation Front) against the curfew imposed on them.
The French presidency acknowledged in October 2021 for the first time that “nearly 12,000 Algerians were arrested and transferred to sorting centers at the Coubertin stadium, the Sports Palace and other places. In addition to numerous injuries, several dozen were killed, their bodies thrown into the Seine. On October 16, on the occasion of a ceremony for the sixtieth anniversary of this massacre, Emmanuel Macron had recognized, in a press release, “inexcusable crimes” committed “under the authority of Maurice Papon”.
“There would be 54 dead”
But according to declassified archives published Monday by Mediapart, the complicity of the French government of the time in these acts goes further. The facts had been reported to President Charles de Gaulle, who nevertheless maintained in office the prefect Maurice Papon and the ministers responsible, writes the online media.
Mediapart found a note dated October 28, 1961, written by General De Gaulle’s adviser for Algerian affairs, Bernard Tricot. He thus wrote to the President of the Republic that “there would be 54 dead”. “Some would have been drowned, others strangled, still others shot dead. Judicial proceedings have been opened. It is unfortunately likely that these investigations will lead to the questioning of certain police officers, ”explains the senior official.
“We must shed light and prosecute the culprits”
In a second note dated November 6, 1961, Bernard Tricot explains to Charles de Gaulle a “question of governmental order”: “To know if we will limit ourselves to letting affairs follow their course, in which case it is probable that they will will get bogged down, or if the Minister of Justice (Editor’s note: Bernard Chenot) and the Minister of the Interior (Editor’s note: Roger Frey) must inform the magistrates and officers of the competent judicial police that the government wants the light be made”. “It seems very important that the government take a position in this matter which, while seeking to avoid scandal as much as possible, shows all concerned that certain things must not be done and that don’t let them,” he continued.
The note, found in the National Archives after it was declassified last December, bears General De Gaulle’s handwritten response: “We must shed light and prosecute the culprits” and “The Minister of the Interior must take police an attitude of “authority”, which he does not take”.
But no proceedings against the police have ever been initiated. Interior Ministers Roger Frey and Justice Bernard Chenot were confirmed in their positions, as was Maurice Papon, who has always denied any police violence whatsoever. Maurice Papon, on the other hand, was convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of Jews between 1942 and 1944.