Question 21662 — veterans and victims of war

Summary

Mrs. Valérie Boyer draws the attention of the Minister of the Armed Forces to the shooting of March 26, 1962, rue d'Isly during the events in Algeria. Between 1952 and 1962, 1,343,000 young people called up and recalled and more than 400,000 active military personnel crossed the Mediterranean to carry out their duty in the various theaters of operations in North Africa. The conflicts in North Africa have had a very heavy toll: more than 25,000 soldiers killed, more than 70,000 soldiers injured, around 400,000 civilian victims of African or European origin. These conflicts were also a tragedy for nearly a million European civilians, forced to abandon the land where they had often been established for several generations, as well as the "Harkis" delivered to an often tragic fate. Far too often minimized, this period of history must no longer be obscured. 57 years after the “accords” of Evian on March 18, 1962, the wounds of those who experienced the Algerian war are still open. Veterans, repatriates, “Harkis”, are forever marked by this war. It is also important to remember that these agreements did not mark the end of the massacres. On the contrary, the violence continued and even intensified after their signing. On March 23, the Bab-el-Oued district was sealed off and subjected to a inhumane search. Houses were machine-gunned, and a little girl was murdered while playing inside her parents' apartment. Women, children, old people lacked food and medicine. On March 26, three days after the start of this closure, the French of Algeria demonstrated peacefully in Algiers, tricolor flags in hand, to mark their attachment to these three French departments which had seen them born, to morally support the inhabitants of the Bab-El-Oued district and to bring them food and medicine. Nothing was done to prevent the Algerians from demonstrating. Prefect Vitalis-Cros did not believe it necessary to establish a curfew. Without warning, at 2:50 p.m., the troops of the 4th rifle regiment opened fire, attacking those who had thrown themselves to the ground to protect themselves. The official version will say that shots had been fired from a roof towards the soldiers. But instead of returning fire towards the roof where the alleged shooter should have been, they fired automatic weapons into the crowd, hitting demonstrators in the back who were vainly trying to escape. This one-sided shootout will last approximately 12 minutes. France had not respected the ceasefire. The official toll was 49 dead and more than 200 injured. All the victims were on the civilian side. Not one dead on the military side nor even one injured. Families could not bury their dead with dignity, religious funerals were prohibited. The bodies were taken directly to the cemeteries by military truck on the day and time chosen by the authorities. Such a law enforcement action, requiring substantial material and human resources, organized and coordinated, was entrusted by certain French officials to a unit unfit to maintain order. Is this a “blunder” attributable to a few soldiers or to the French Government? This is an event of exceptional gravity, the most violent state repression that a street demonstration has ever provoked in France since the Commune. For many years, the French authorities imposed silence on this dramatic page of the story. Thanks to the work of French researchers and historians (notably Jean-Jacques Jordi), the circumstances of the massacre perpetrated on March 26, 1962 are now known. In this regard, in order for all light to be shed on this event, free access to all archives must be fully guaranteed. It is now high time for the French state to definitively break with the silence and officially recognize the crimes committed on March 26, 1962 during this peaceful demonstration. This is the wish of the association of the families of the victims of March 26, 1962. 57 years after these events, there are still many members of the victims' families. They are now very old and have the right to the truth about this tragedy which haunted their lives. This contemptuous silence from the French authorities is eating away at them. It is time to know the whole truth and for all the archives to be open. Also, she would like to know the identities of the soldiers present on March 26, 1962, as well as their civil and military careers from that date.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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