Yahoo – AFP,
Fran Blandy, 11 Jan 2015
 |
A child
holds a note reading "Je suis Charlie (I am Charlie)" during a Unity
rally
“Marche Republicaine” in Paris on January 11, 2015 in tribute to the 17
victims of
a three-day killing spree by homegrown Islamists (AFP Photo/Patrick
Kovarick)
|
Paris (AFP)
- A metro driver rallies a packed train, a crowd applauds and cheers the police
and a heartbroken man falls sobbing into President Francois Hollande's arms.
As a shaken
France united after its darkest week in decades, such unusual scenes were the
order of the day.
 |
A protester holds a placard reading "Free
together, not afraid" at Place de la Nation
during the unity rally "Marche Republicaine"
on January 11, 2015 in Paris (AFP Photo/
Joel Saget)
|
But they
came. For the journalists, police officers, Jews, Muslims and ordinary people
killed by extremists.
"Who
am I?" yelled a driver on one metro line. "Charlie!" responded
the crowd, clapping, on a journey where people usually avert gazes and stay glued
to their cellphones.
"I am
really happy to work today and take you to the Republican march," said
another driver on the Metro also to applause.
The series
of attacks which started with a massacre at the Charlie Hebdo weekly on
Wednesday and ended with a deadly hostage drama in a Jewish supermarket on
Friday, struck as the Gallic mood was already particularly gloomy.
It is the
middle of winter, the economy is in the doldrums and the president is the most
unpopular in modern history.
But the
tragedy spurred the greatest outpouring of patriotic spirit seen in decades,
with the French flag fluttering through the air and the Marseillaise anthem
ringing out through days of marches.
One of the
most unexpected scenes of the day, was when a crowd burst into spontaneous
applause for passing gendarmes, shouting "Thank You" -- in a country
where riot police are notoriously unpopular.
Then there
were the tears.
First from
some marchers unable to contain their emotion, then from families of those
killed in the three days of terror who wept and held hands.
One
employee of the Charlie Hebdo magazine where 12 people were massacred on
Wednesday fell into Hollande's arms as he greeted those affected.
Earlier,
dozens of world leaders linked arms, leading the mammoth procession as over a
million people crammed tightly into the main arteries and side streets of
Paris.
'We can
live together'
Despite
their differences, people came together under wintry blue skies with a defiant
message: France will not be divided by fear or religious differences.
 |
French
President Francois Hollande (L)
comforts French columnist for Charlie Hebdo
Dr
Patrick Pelloux as they attend the
solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in
the streets of Paris on January 11, 2015
(AFP Photo/Philippe Wojazer)
|
Daniel, a
hip young Jewish singer and Riad a 60-year-old Muslim shopkeeper swapped views
on the country's ordeal as the crowd gathered.
"We
can live together," said Daniel Benisty, 30, who is Jewish like the four
men killed when Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly stormed a kosher supermarket in
the French capital on Friday.
"It's
the idea of living together because we share the same values, liberty,
fraternity, equality, to live in peace and respect each other despite our
differences."
"Exactly!"
agreed Riad, the 60-year-old shopkeeper. "I don't recognise these
Islamists, they're not Muslims."
'Are the
bad men coming?'
Isabelle
Dahmani, a French Christian married to a Muslim, Mohamed, brought their three
children aged 11, nine and four to show them there is nothing to fear.
The
nine-year-old burst into tears watching the news this week, Isabelle admitted,
saying her daughter had asked if "the bad men are coming to our
house?"
The oldest
son teased his embarrassed sister while the four-year-old, dressed in pink from
head to toe with a piece of paper saying "Je suis Charlie" (I am
Charlie) pinned to her jacket, hid giggling behind her mother's legs.
The phrase
that has become the slogan of support for the cartoonists and journalists
massacred at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly was seen
everywhere.
"We
are in a free country. We want to stop this terrorism. We want them to see and
understand Republican values," Isabelle told AFP.
"But
we are kind of anxious, you never know what can happen," she added.
Her husband
Mohamed, who is a non-practising Muslim, said that after the attacks, "I
didn't want to leave the house, I was mostly scared of retaliation."
"One
must not confuse Muslims with terrorists," he said.
But not
everyone went to the march.
Samir, 29,
said he found it hard to condemn the Islamist attack on Charlie Hebdo, as the
satirical magazine had "insulted the prophet."
 |
People
visit a makeshift memorial near the headquarters of the French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo at the end of the unity rally "Marche Republicaine" on
January 11,
2015 in Paris (AFP Photo/Joel Saget)
|
Samia, 47,
in another part of Paris, was annoyed for other reasons. She thinks the march
"gives importance to jihadists, to these crazies."
'Laugh!
It isn't over'
Earlier in
the morning, several joggers on their morning run stopped to pay tribute to the
dead.
Lassina
Traore, a 34-year-old French-born Muslim from the Ivory Coast, stopped after an
eight-kilometre (five-mile) run to gently light 17 candles at the foot of the
iconic republican monument in the centre of the large Place de la Republique
square from where the marchers later set off.
The march
is "a real sign of how strong France is. It shows that France is strong
when it is united against these people," said the consultant.
As more and
more Parisians poured into the spot -- and, when that became crammed to
capacity, to nearby streets -- some held high cartoons drawn by the slain
Charlie Hebdo staff.
One banner
covered in the cartoons proclaimed: "Laugh Charlie, it isn't over."
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