The only known descendant of a Senegalese rifleman killed by French forces in the 1944 Thiaroye massacre has filed a legal complaint against the French state, accusing it of concealing mass graves and blocking justice.<\/p>\n
Biram Senghor, 86, is the son of M\u2019Bap Senghor, one of dozens of West African riflemen, known as tirailleurs senegalais, who were shot by French colonial forces in Thiaroye near Dakar after returning from World War II<\/a> service in Europe.<\/p>\n The soldiers were demanding unpaid wages when the army opened fire on 1 December, 1944.<\/p>\n “My father fought for France. He returned to ask for what he was owed and was killed,” Senghor told France’s AFP news agency from his home in central Senegal<\/a>. \u201cI still don\u2019t know where he\u2019s buried.\u201d<\/p>\n His lawyer, Mbaye Dieng, filed a legal complaint Tuesday in a Paris court. It targets both the French state and unidentified persons for “concealment of a corpse” \u2013 a crime under French law when linked to violence.<\/p>\n Dieng argues that France<\/a> deliberately withheld the locations of mass graves and key historical records.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years the family was told M\u2019Bap Senghor had deserted,\u201d Dieng said. \u201cNow they acknowledge he died at Thiaroye, but his burial site remains unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n French authorities at the time admitted to at least 35 deaths, but historians estimate there could be more than 300. Despite decades of advocacy, the massacre\u2019s full scale and burial details remain unknown.<\/p>\n (with AFP)<\/p>\n Read more on RFI English<\/a><\/p>\n Read also:
France faces pressure at home to admit 1945 colonial massacre of Algerians<\/a>
Bullets unearthed in Senegal cemetery could shed light on Thiaroye massacre<\/a>
France honours WWII colonial troops shot dead by French army in Senegal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only known descendant of a Senegalese rifleman killed by French forces in the 1944 Thiaroye massacre has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,85638,53534,85640,85641,85637,85639],"class_list":{"0":"post-215479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-french-colonial-forces","12":"tag-french-forces","13":"tag-legal-complaint","14":"tag-mass-graves","15":"tag-thiaroye","16":"tag-thiaroye-massacre"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114748875453362300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}