French Report Details ’61 Protest Deaths

PARIS — French authorities hid the scope of a 1961 crackdown on Algerians who were beaten, shot and thrown into the Seine River during a protest tied to Algerian independence, according to a government study released Monday.

The Interior Ministry report, compiled from police records originally scheduled for release in 2021, said it was likely that dozens of people died on Oct. 17, 1961. Previously, officials had insisted that only seven people were killed.

The study said Maurice Papon--Paris police chief at the time of the demonstration and recently convicted of complicity in World War II-era atrocities--issued a memo a month before the protest saying flagrant offenders “should be shot on sight.”

Up to 25,000 Algerians, responding to a call by Algeria’s National Liberation Front, demonstrated in Paris to protest a curfew. Some historians said at least 200 people were killed; Algerian groups put the figure at 300.

Algeria won independence in 1962.