France finally acknowledged after 80 years that the killing of West African soldiers in Thiaroye, Senegal by French forces in 1944 was genocide. French President Emmanuel Macron admitted this for the first time in a letter to the Senegalese government on Thursday.
A similar incident of massacre took place in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, where unarmed people were fired indiscriminately, but Britain has not yet apologized for this. Only regret was expressed on the 100th anniversary of Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Macron wrote a letter before his 80th birthday
This admission of the French President has come a day before the 80th anniversary of the killings during World War II in the village of Thiaroye on the outskirts of Senegal’s capital Dakar. This letter has been written at a time when France’s influence on the region is decreasing.
During the French War of 1940, about 400 soldiers from West Africa, who fought on behalf of the French army, were killed by French soldiers on December 1, 1944. Most of them were unarmed. France called it a rebellion over salary payments.
‘New beginning with Macron’s step’
Senegalese President Basiru Diomaye Fay said that he had received the letter from the French President. This move by Macron should mark a new beginning, so that the whole truth about this tragic incident at Thiaroye can be revealed.
In the letter, Macron said, ‘France must recognize that a massacre occurred that day as a result of the confrontation between soldiers and riflemen demanding to be paid their full legitimate pay.’ Let us tell you that the Jallianwala Bagh incident took place on April 13, 1919.
Britain had expressed only regret
During the British rule, British soldiers opened fire on unarmed people protesting against the Rowlatt Act. Hundreds of people were killed. In 2019, the then British Prime Minister Teresa May had expressed only regret over the Jallianwala massacre.