FILE - Guests throw roses into the Seine river after French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath near the Pont de Bezons Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021 in Colombes, near Paris. Emmanuel Macron becomes the first French president to commemorate the brutal repression of an Oct 17, 1961 demonstration during which at least 120 Algerians were killed during a protest to support Algerian independence. French lawmakers on Thursday March 28, 2024 condemned an infamous 1961 police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris as a "bloody and murderous repression," marking another step in the country's recognition of the massacre that authorities sought to cover up for decades. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh, Pool, File)
March 28, 2024 - 7:30 AM
PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers on Thursday condemned an infamous 1961 police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris as a “bloody and murderous repression,” marking another step in the country's recognition of the massacre that authorities sought to cover up for decades.
The National Assembly, parliament's lower house, voted 67-11 in favor of a nonbinding resolution that condemned the police brutality that occurred on Oct. 17, 1961. The resolution also asked that France establish a national day of remembrance.
About 12,000 Algerians were arrested in the crackdown and dozens were killed, “their bodies thrown into the Seine River,” President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged in 2021 on the 60th anniversary of the massacre.
Historians say at least 120 protesters died, some shot and some drowned, Macron’s office said then.
The protesters in 1961 had answered a call for a peaceful demonstration by the French branch of the National Liberation Front, or FLN, which was fighting for Algerian independence, against a discriminatory nighttime curfew targeting Algerians in the Paris region.
Algeria was under French rule for 132 years until its independence in 1962.
News from © The Associated Press, 2024