Harris, Castex honour terror victims
PARIS: US Vice President Kamala Harris and French Prime Minister Jean Castex laid wreaths at a Paris cafe and France’s national football stadium on Saturday six years since deadly terror atacks that let 130 people dead.
The atacks by three separate teams of Daesh militants on the night of Nov.13, 2015 were the worst in France since World War II.
Gunmen mowed down 129 people in front of cafes and at a concert hall in the capital, while a bus driver was killed ater suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the stadium in its suburbs.
Harris, wrapping up a four-day trip to France, placed a bouquet of white flowers in front of a plaque honouring the victims outside a Paris cafe.
Castex atended a minute of silence at the Stade de France football stadium, along with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, before laying wreaths at the sites of the other atacks inside Paris.
In front of the Bataclan concert hall, survivors and relatives of the victims listened to someone read out the names of each of the 90 people killed during a concert there six years ago.
Public commemorations of the tragedy were called off last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Last year we weren’t allowed to come and we all found it really tough,” said Bruno Poncet, who made it out alive of the Bataclan.
But he said the start of a trial over the attacks in September meant that those atending the commemoration this year felt more united.
“We’ve really bonded thanks to the trial,” he said.
“During previous commemorations, we’d spot each other from afar without really daring to speak to each other. We were really shy.” “But standing up in court has really changed everything.” Saturday’s commemorations wrapped up with a minute of silence at the Stade de France in the evening before the kick-off for a game between France and Kazakhstan.
The marathon trial, the biggest in France’s modern legal history, is expected to last until May 2022.
Twenty defendants are facing sentences of up to life in prison, including the sole atacker who was not gunned down by police, Salah Abdeslam, a French-moroccan national who was captured in Brussels.
Six of the defendants are being tried in absentia. Poncet said he felt it was crucial that he atend the hearings.