In an open letter to Patricia Miralles, French Minister Delegate for Remembrance and Veterans Affairs, a historian denounces misrepresentations on the commemorative plaques of the
Senegalese cemetery in Chasselay, just days before it reopens.
As the reopening ceremony of the national necropolis of the Senegalese Tata in Chasselay approaches, scheduled for March 28 following its desecration last January, historian Armelle Mabon sent the letter to the Minister Delegate.
In this letter dated March 17, the academic denounces what she calls a “memorial deception” concerning the commemorative plaques inaugurated in January 2022 by then-Minister Genevieve
Darrieussecq.
“Of the twenty-five riflemen, the ONaC-VG changed 14 names without referring the matter to the public prosecutor for a prior amendment on the death certificates,” Armelle Mabon stresses,
citing the example of “Soungo Sar, who had regained his real name by a decision of the Villefranche-sur-Saône prosecutor in 1968, is now named Songue Sarr on one of the plaques.”
The historian also points out another irregularity: “Of the twenty-five, twelve missing persons were listed as buried, even though we know nothing about the date, place, or circumstances of their
deaths.”
This situation allegedly contravenes the regulations governing national cemeteries, which, according to a note cited in the letter, stipulate that “the ministry’s consistent policy is to include in cemeteries only the names of the soldiers buried there, to the exclusion of all others.”
Despite several administrative appeals and a decision by the Paris Administrative Court ordering the Ministry of the Armed Forces to disclose the documents that enabled the identification of the soldiers, Ms. Mabon claims to have obtained no supporting documentation: “Neither the ministry nor the ONaC-VG have responded to the injunction.”
The historian, along with documentary filmmaker Eveline Berruezo, filed a lawsuit before the administrative court requesting that the plaques be brought into compliance. Their request was rejected in May 2023, not on the merits but for lack of legal standing, a decision they have appealed.
“We believe that in the absence of any known legal successors to these men, out of respect for those who died for France and in the public interest of ensuring that public action complies with the regulations enacted, our actions must be declared admissible and examined,” Armelle Mabon argues.
To date, neither the Ministry of the Armed Forces nor the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (ONaC-VG) have publicly responded to these accusations.
AC/fss/as/APA