Algeria reminded France of a very darkish chapter of its colonial previous throughout an in any other case celebratory opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics on Friday.
Algerian athletes introduced pink roses on their boat as they paraded for the occasion, after which tossed them into the river to honour victims of an notorious 1961 police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris. Some members of the delegation chanted “Lengthy stay Algeria!” in Arabic after throwing the flowers.
Historians say some 120 protesters died and 12,000 have been arrested as they demonstrated on October 17, 1961 in help of independence from France, then Algeria’s colonial ruler. Some have been thrown within the Seine River by police.
Kaci Yahia, an Algerian worker for the Paris sewage system, was amongst them. His physique was by no means recovered. His 28-year-old grandson Yanis, watching from Algeria, welcomed the commemoration by his nation’s delegation Friday.
“To make such a gesture, the day of the opening of the Olympics in Paris, is a monumental homage to the victims of October 17. It is a second of immense emotion,” he stated.
Different Algerians stated the Olympics weren’t the second for such a protest transfer.
French authorities sought to cowl up the 1961 bloodbath for many years. French President Emmanuel Macron lately acknowledged that “crimes” dedicated that day have been “inexcusable for the Republic”.
Algeria gained independence in 1962 after 132 years beneath colonial rule.