Macron condemns 'inexcusable' Paris massacre of Algerians

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned as "inexcusable" a deadly crackdown by Paris police on a 1961 protest by Algerians whose scale was covered up for decades, disappointing activists who hoped for an even stronger recognition of responsibility.

Macron told relatives of victims on the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed that "crimes" were committed on the night of October 17, 1961 under the command of the notorious Paris police chief Maurice Papon.

He acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, "their bodies thrown into the River Seine" and paid tribute to their memory.

The precise number of victims has never been made clear and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed.

Macron "recognised the facts: that the crimes committed that night under Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic", the Elysee said.

"This tragedy was long hushed-up, denied or concealed," it added in a statement.

People threw roses into the Seine river after French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath near Bezons bridge. By Rafael Yaghobzadeh (POOL/AFP)

The rally was called in the final year of France's increasingly violent attempt to retain Algeria as a north African colony, and in the middle of a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.

Papon was in the 1980s revealed to have been a collaborator with the occupying Nazis in World War II and complicit in the deportation of Jews. He was convicted of crimes against humanity but later released.

'Much further'

Macron, the first French president to attend a memorial ceremony for those killed, observed a minute of silence in their memory at the Bezons bridge over the Seine on the outskirts of Paris where the protest started.

His comments that crimes were committed went further than predecessor Francois Hollande, who acknowledged in 2012 that the protesting Algerians had been "killed during a bloody repression".

However he did not issue a formal apology. He also did not give a public speech, with the Elysee issuing only the written statement.

The president, France's first leader born after the colonial era, has made a priority of historical reconciliation and forging a modern relationship with former colonies.

But Macron, who is expected to seek re-election next year, is wary about provoking a backlash from political opponents.

His far-right electoral opponents, nationalists Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, are outspoken critics of efforts to acknowledge or show repentance for past crimes.

Algerians arrested during the demonstration in Paris on October 17, 1961 are searched before boarding a plane bound for Algeria. By - (AFP)

Historian Emmanuel Blanchard told AFP that Macron's comments represented "progress" and had gone "much further" than those made by Hollande in 2012.

But he took issue with the decision to pin responsibility on Papon alone, saying that then prime minister Michel Debre and president Charles de Gaulle had not been held to account over the ensuing cover-up or the fact Papon would remain Paris police chief until 1967.

'State crime'?

The statement by Macron "is progress but not complete. We hoped for more," Mimouna Hadjam of the Africa93 anti-racism association told AFP.

"Papon did not act alone. People were tortured, massacred in the heart of Paris and those high up knew," Hadjam added, calling for recognition of a "state crime".

Domonique Sopo, the head of SOS Racism, said while the comments were welcome, Macron was showing a tendency of taking "small steps" on such issues by reducing responsibility to Papon alone.

The 1961 protests were called in response to a strict curfew imposed on Algerians to prevent the underground FLN resistance movement from collecting funds following a spate of deadly attacks on French police officers.

French historian Benjamin Stora presented a report earlier this year in which he urged a truth commission over the Algerian war. By JOEL SAGET (AFP)

Macron's comments come in the midst of an an ongoing diplomatic row between Paris and Algiers fuelled by comments attributed to the president describing the country as ruled by a "political-military system" that had "totally re-written" its history.

A report commissioned by the president from historian Benjamin Stora earlier this year urged a truth commission over the Algerian war but Macron ruled out issuing any official apology.

Another historical commission set up by Macron also found that France had overwhelming responsibilities over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in a finding that has led to a certain thawing in ties between Paris and Kigali.