The shooting of the street of Isly took place the March 26th 1962 in front of the large post office in the center of Algiers (Algérie). This day there a peaceful demonstration of French citizens in favor of French Algeria intended to force the stoppings of the police force which excavated the district of Bab El-Oued following the massacre of 6 called. Crowd encountered a stopping held by the French Army .

Context

In 1962, the general Salan (chief of OAS) aimed to counter the implementation of the Accords of signed Evian on March 18th, by causing the common rising of the French of Algérie, of the units of the army favorable to French Algeria and the Harkis. March 22nd at Bab El-Oued, of the elements of the OAS six young people called of the quota cut down coldly who refused to give their weapons.

March 23rd, of the commandos of OAS take the control of the district of Bab El-Oued, which is isolated from the remainder of Algiers by the police force and the army which utilizes aviation. To try to break the surrounding of the insurrectionists, OAS launched a call to the general strike and organized a demonstration having to go to Bab el Oued while passing in front of the Large Post office, with the entry of the street of Isly.

Facts

The service of order was ensured by the Army which had received from Paris the instruction not to yield to the riot. The stopping at the entry of the street of Isly was held by 45 riflemen of 4^ième R.T.A. These riflemen, come recently from the village, were not adapted to this type of maintenance mission of the order. This instruction is translated by the command of Xe military region to the soldiers directing the stopping of the street of Isly by: “If the demonstrators insist, open fire” but no one did not want to confirm this written order.

According to the soldiers, shots of unknown origin would be at the origin of the release of the shooting of the soldiers, who mitraillent crowd with bearing end then. Yves Courrière shows to the supposed positions of shooting members of the OAS. He shows that if the circumstances remain not very clear, it is obvious that the soldiers did not draw with bearing end in crowd because considering the number of fired ammunition, there would have been then several hundreds of deaths. This version of the facts is in contradiction with direct testimonys. Many terraces were indeed occupied by member of the anti-riot polices good visible and recognizable with their kepis. One époumone " Halt with the feu"     but the gusts last more than one fifteen minutes.

According to certain sources, these member of the anti-riot polices would have grapeshot crowd starting from the terraces, in particular with the angle of the streets Charras and Charles Péguy. According to other sources, serving it of the FM of 4^ième R.T.A. “would lengthily have sprinkled” the demonstrators. At all events, the official results of 46 died and 150 wounded, but much of casualties will die at the hospital. No final list of the victims established forever. All the victims were civilians. However in 2003, in its counter-enquiry Bastien-Thiry: Until the end of French Algeria , international reporter Jean-Pax Méfret advances the number of 80 dead and 200 wounded aucours of what it names “the massacre of March 26th”. The association of the victims of March 26th publishes a list of 62 dead, all out of the civilians, no soldier is not killed.

Europeans, incomes of their stupor, make the Moslems responsible for slaughter. For them, they are agitators FLN who organized it. The completed shooting, they " make justice" with Belcourt and 10 Moslems his assassinated at once.

Consequences

The shooting of the street of Isly marks the end of the European hopes in the OAS and by rebound the beginning of the massive exodus of Europeans of Algeria. It constitutes, with the failure of the catch of Bab el Oued, a major failure for the OAS.

According to partisans of French Algeria or certain Pied-noir associations of , this drama would have been minimized, even forgotten by France. However, at the time of the documentary ones on the war of independence of Algeria one can see shooting at crowd and intending to hopelessly shout “Halt with fire my lieutenant! ”

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