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At 11 a.m. on Thursday December 5, a ceremony to commemorate the National Day of Homage to those who died for France in the Algerian War and in the fighting in Morocco and Tunisia took place in front of the war memorial opposite the Hôtel de la Collectivité Territoriale in Gustavia.rie and the fighting in Morocco and Tunisia took place in front of the monument to the dead, opposite the Hôtel de la Collectivité territoriale, in Gustavia. Philippe Ladurée, President of the Saint-Barthélemy Veterans' Federation, and Aliénor Barbé-Guillaume, each paid tribute to the fallen with a speech, in the presence of the President of the Collectivité, Xavier Lédée.
The message from the Union fédérale des anciens combattants read by Philippe Laduré during the ceremony
"The date of December 5 was decreed in 2003 as "Journée nationale d'hommage aux morts pour la France pendant la guerre d'Algérie et les combats du Maroc et de la Tunisie" by French President Jacques Chirac. By inaugurating the National Memorial at Quai Branly in Paris on December 5, 2002, the French President wished to solemnize the memory of a war, recognized in October 1998, and make it part of our national history.
Each of the three columns, adorned with a color from the national flag, scrolls the list of names of the 22,959 French soldiers, including 3.000 harkis, who died for France in the Algerian war and the fighting in Morocco and Tunisia, and all the members of the supplétives forces who were killed after the ceasefire in Algeria, many of whom have never been identified.
Today, as we pay tribute to those who died during the conflicts in North Africa, we also pay tribute to the missing and to the civilian victims of massacres, fighting and atrocities, including after the signing of the Evian agreements on March 19, 1962. Let us never forget them!
