FRANCE COULD HAVE RENDERED A FULL APOLOGY: Sixty years ago today, something terrible happened in Paris. The Parisian police brutally attacked a rally being held by 12,000 Algerians in France against the French war of occupation in their homeland. Police shot untold numbers of people, and threw many of them into the chilly waters of the Sienne, where most of them drowned. Hundreds are said to have perished though the exact numbers have been disputed. The man mainly responsible for the brutality, police chief Maurice Papon, was later found to have collaborated with occupying Nazi forces in World War II in sending Jews to Nazi death camps. French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement on the anniversary saying that the 1961 march had been repressed "brutally, violently and in blood" and that crimes had been committed. He must be commended for going further than any other French president in acknowledging the massacre. But, he stopped short of a full apology, leaving many descendants of those killed and injured disappointed. It is a truism that in cases such as these, for full closure, a full apology is needed. [COMMENT BY: Omar Shariff, International Editor]
AFP