Hundreds of West African troops participating in World War II were shot dead due to dispute over overdue wages
On the eve of the 80th anniversary, President Macron sent a letter of recognition for the first time since the end of the war.
On the 29th (local time), French President Emmanuel Macron became the first to recognize the French military’s annihilation of West African troops in 1944 as a “genocide.”
President Macron revealed this fact in a letter sent to the Senegalese authorities on this day.
On this day, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Tiaroye massacre during World War II, the incident, which Macron recognized as a massacre, occurred in Tiaroye, a fishing village on the outskirts of Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
At that time, as France’s influence in the West African region declined, the French government’s control over the former French colony in West Africa was shaken.
Here, 35 to 400 West African soldiers who had fought on the French front in 1940 were killed by the French on December 1, 1944. The name is that they started a rebellion to demand overdue wages.
The West African soldiers were a unit called the Thiraeur Senegalese (Senegalese Infantry), a colonial infantry unit of the French Army. According to historians, the French army gathered these soldiers, who had been disputing overdue wages for several days, on December 1 and shot and killed them all at once, even though they were unarmed.
Senegalese President Basiro Diomaje Faye said he had received this letter from President Macron, and an Associated Press reporter also personally confirmed the letter.
At a press conference on the night of the 28th, President Payet praised President Macron’s action as “an action that opens the door for the first time to finally reveal the full truth about Tiaroye’s painful incident.”
“We have been trying to bring this case to a close for a long time, but now it has been achieved thanks to France’s dedicated efforts and honest and full cooperation,” he said.
Macron’s letter said, “France cannot help but acknowledge that the series of events that occurred on the day of the incident, arising from a fight between soldiers and gunmen demanding payment of legally just wages, ultimately led to the massacre.”
President Macron said, “Now it is important to clearly reveal the causes and facts that led to this tragedy, if possible. I asked our French military to inform me of all the progress of the ‘Committee for the Restoration of Truth’. “This requires a joint effort by your government and the committee under the direction of Professor Amadou Diouf, who is known to have outstanding qualifications in this field,” he wrote.
A few weeks before this letter was sent, the ruling party, PASTEF, was elected with an absolute majority in Senegal’s parliamentary elections. This allowed President Payet to begin the ambitious reform measures he had promised in his election pledge, which included achieving economic independence from foreign countries, including France.
France is also the foreign country investing the most in this country.
France still has 350 troops stationed in this former colony, but it is mainly limited to support work.
In response to an AP reporter’s question about this issue, President Payet answered that it was not because Senegal wanted it.
“France has historically occupied this country, colonized it, and stationed here. But if you think about reversing those roles, France would not want other countries, such as China, Russia, or Senegal, to station military units in its country,” he refuted.
(Dakar (Senegal) = AP/Newsis)
Source: www.donga.com
