This Sunday was commemorated the date of March 19, 1962, the day of the signing of the Evian Accords. At the invitation of the cantonal president of the National Federation of Veterans of Algeria (Fnaca) Aldo Costantini, the Sub-Prefect Arnaud Sorge, the president of Fnaca 82 Jean-Claude Calvet, representatives of the gendarmerie, the police , firefighters, patriotic associations and elected officials as well as children from the Municipal Youth Council laid a wreath with Mayor Jean-Philippe Bésiers.
In his remarks, he very rightly indicated that this date of March 19, 1962, did not mark the definitive end of hostilities. “Many facts, he said, will occur following, including the massacre of Oran, July 5, 1962”. Hence the importance of the presence of children so that the duty of remembrance does not die out and does not fall into harmful oblivion. During this commemoration, Aldo Costantini read the national message of this organization which, precisely, insists on the Duty of Memory to be cultivated for future generations. In this message, young people are rightly recommended to become “actors in your history and builders of a peace to be built every day, never letting minds get used to war”.
“Admitting That Diverse Memories Are Expressed”
As for the Sub-Prefect Arnaud Sorge, he also underlines the bloody and murderous consequences of this March 19, 1962, in the midst of which the Minister Patricia Miralès recalls “the period which opened after was that of many sufferings. For the conscripts remained in Algeria, for the harkis, for the victims of attacks and massacres, for those who were forced to leave the land where they were born and to discover the feeling of exile.The tragic death knell is marked by so many dates .” And he ends the reading of this message with a solemn appeal. “We must continue to watch and accept this step in our collective history in its extreme complexity, agree to transmit its memory, but without transmitting to new generations the passions of the time. We must admit that various memories are expressed and that the only way is to add them and not to oppose them. This is the only way for national cohesion”.
Sonnerie aux Morts and Marseillaise then ended this patriotic commemoration of Remembrance and Memory to never forget. Let us know that André Malraux said: “If you want to dominate a people, take away its memory”.
This article is originally published on ladepeche.fr
