France misled family of soldier killed in Senegal mutiny

The Paris Administrative Court has ruled that the state was at fault for failing to properly investigate the death of an African rifleman killed in the 1944 Thiaroye massacre in Senegal, when the French army opened fire on its colonial troops who were demanding their pay, reports RFI. The court found that French authorities had not only provided the soldier's family with false information in the years following his death, but had subsequently failed to use all available means to establish the precise circumstances of his death or the location of his burial. While the court acknowledged it could not rule on the death itself due to the statute of limitations, it found that the state's failure to investigate amounted to a fault giving rise to liability. The tribunal awarded €10 000 in damages to the soldier's son, who brought the case to court last June, accusing the French state of concealing mass graves and blocking justice. The massacre took place on 1 December 1944 at Thiaroye, near Dakar, when French forces fired on West African riflemen – known as tirailleurs senegalais – who had served in the French army and who mutinied over unpaid pages. The precise death toll, the full circumstances of the killings and the location of the victims' graves remain unresolved.

Full RFI report