Nation mourns Paris massacre dead
Hollande attempts to build anti-IS coalition
PARIS: France yesterday mourned the 130 people killed in the Nov 13 Paris attacks, with President Francois Hollande leading a solemn ceremony in honour of the victims.
Families of those killed in France’s worst-ever terror attack, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, joined some of the wounded at ceremonies at the Invalides, the gilded 17th-century complex in central Paris that houses a military hospital and museum and Napoleon’s tomb.
The tribute was meant to be “national and republican”, an official at the Elysee presidential palace said, referring to the French republic’s creed of liberty, equality and fraternity.
“It will take place in sobriety and solemnity, reflected by the beauty of the surroundings,” the official said in advance.
Mr Hollande took a break from a whirlwind diplomatic bid to build a broad military coalition to defeat the IS.
The marathon has taken him from Paris to Washington to Moscow in just a few days.
He was due to make a 20-minute address at the one-hour ceremony, which was shown live on television.
In the run up to the commemoration, Mr Hollande called on the French to hang out the Tricolour.
“Every French citizen can take part [in the tribute] by taking the opportunity to deck their home with a blue, white and red flag, the colours of France,” government spokesman Stephane Le Foll quoted Mr Hollande as saying.
But some victims’ families threatened to snub the event, accusing the government of failing to tighten security after terror attacks in January, when jihadist gunmen killed 17 people in Paris, mainly at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.
“Thanks Mr President, politicians, but we don’t want your handshake or your tribute and we hold you partly responsible for what has happened,” Emmanuelle Prevost, whose brother was one of the 90 killed at the Bataclan concert hall, wrote on Facebook.
As the nation mourns the victims, an international manhunt is still on for two key suspects — Salah Abdeslam, who played a key logistical role in the wave of terror, and Mohamed Abrini, seen with Mr Abdeslam two days before the atrocities.
France has stepped up its air strikes on IS targets in Syria and Iraq, where the group controls large areas of territory, and wants to create a more coordinated, concerted international effort to destroy the hardline Islamists.
On a visit to Moscow on Thursday, Hollande and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed to coordinate strikes against the jihadists.
“The strikes against Daesh [IS] will be intensified and be the object of coordination,” Mr Hollande said at a news conference after their meeting at the Kremlin.
The agreement to focus on IS targets was the most concrete progress from the final leg of Mr Hollande’s marathon push to weld together a broad alliance to crush the IS after the Paris attacks.
But the French leader failed to gain any pledge from Mr Putin over helping the US-led coalition which is targeting the IS.
Mr Hollande’s diplomatic drive has secured some offers of support from France’s allies but also run into coolness and complications.
The challenge has been made tougher by a spat between Moscow and Turkey over a downed Russian warplane on the Syrian-Turkish border.