Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Decree on Hostages ===
Commune leaders responded to the execution of prisoners by the Army by passing a new order on 5 April—the Decree on Hostages, which will only be implemented when the insurrection is crushed (Bloody Week). Under the decree, any person accused of complicity with the Versailles government could be immediately arrested, imprisoned and tried by a special jury of accusation. Those convicted by the jury would become "hostages of the people of Paris." Article 5 stated, "Every execution of a prisoner of war or of a partisan of the government of the Commune of Paris will be immediately followed by the execution of a triple number of hostages held by virtue of article four." Prisoners of war would be brought before a jury, which would decide if they would be released or held as hostages.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=153}}

The National Assembly in Versailles responded to the decree the next day; it passed a law allowing military tribunals to judge and punish suspects within 24 hours. [[Émile Zola]] wrote, "Thus we citizens of Paris are placed between two terrible laws; the law of suspects brought back by the Commune and the law on rapid executions which will certainly be approved by the Assembly. They are not fighting with cannon shots, they are slaughtering each other with decrees."<ref>Zola, Emile, ''La Cloche'', 8 April 1871</ref> About one hundred hostages, including the Archbishop, were shot by the Commune before its end.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=153}}