One year on, France remembers victims of kosher store massacre

Tributes also paid to a young policewoman killed by the gunman who went on to carry out the Hyper Cacher siege

By AFP 9 January 2016, 3:22 pm

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The four victims of the Paris Hyper Cacher attack, from left to right: Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Francois-Michel Saada, Philippe Braham. (Courtesy)

AFP — France paid homage Saturday to four Jewish hostages killed at a kosher supermarket in Paris, a year after a spate of jihadist attacks that began with a deadly assault on the Charlie Hebdo weekly.

Tributes were also paid to Clarissa Jean-Philippe, a young policewoman who was also killed by the gunman who went on to carry out the supermarket siege, with President Francois Hollande unveiling a plaque in her honor in the Paris suburb of Montrouge where she died.

A total of 17 people were killed in the January 2015 attacks which rocked France and touched off a wave of Islamist violence that reached a head in November when a group of gunmen and suicide bombers unleashed mayhem in Paris, killing 130.

The 26-year-old policewoman was killed on January 8 by Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who went on to attack the Hyper Cacher supermarket in east Paris. Three shoppers and an employee were killed by Coulibaly before he was killed in a police raid.

French President Francois Hollande (2nd R) and mayor of Montrouge Jean-Loup Metton (R) lay a wreath of flowers honoring late policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge south of Paris, on January 9, 2016. (AFP/POOL/Michel Euler)

A gathering to remember the victims organized by the Jewish umbrella group CRIF was to be held outside the supermarket after sundown on Saturday.

“Despite continuing traumatic feelings, life has returned to normal with a renewed sense of fraternity,” said Haim Korsia, France’s grand rabbi.

Commemorations will culminate in a public event on Sunday in the Place de la Republique, the vast square that became the rallying point for “Je Suis Charlie” solidarity movement, and for similar movements after the deadly November 13 attacks.

There, a 10-meter (35-foot) oak will be planted as a “tree of remembrance.” Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday was to perform “Un Dimanche de Janvier” (One January Sunday), a song recalling the vast mobilization that saw 1.6 million people march in Paris on January 11, 2015.

Also this weekend, mosques around the country are opening their doors to visitors in a move to “highlight the real values of Islam, to set straight the cliches about links to violence and terrorism,” Anouar Kbibech, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, told AFP.