Editing Maurice Papon (section)

==Prefect of Police of Paris==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2015}}
In March 1958, Papon was appointed [[prefecture of police|Prefect of Police]] for Paris by the government of Radical [[Félix Gaillard]].

===May 1958 crisis===
Papon thus had an important role in the [[May 1958 crisis]], which brought de Gaulle to power and led to the founding of the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]]. He took part in the secret [[Gaullism|Gaullist]] meetings that assured the use of the crisis to prepare de Gaulle's nomination as President of the council and to grant him special powers.<ref>See, in particular, Eric Roussel, ''Charles de Gaulle'', op. cit., pp. 598–99</ref> On 3 July 1958, he managed to get what, according to ''Le Monde'', he could "never have dreamed of" a ''[[Médaille de la Résistance|Carte d'Ancien Combattant de la Resistance]]''.<ref name="Monde"/> On 12 July 1961, President de Gaulle bestowed on him the French [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honour]] for service to the state.<ref name="ChronoFig"/>

===October 1961 massacre===

Papon oversaw the repression during the [[Paris massacre of 1961]]: on 17 October 1961, a large peaceful march, organised by the Algerian [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]], broke a curfew that had been "advised" by Papon because of ostensible "concerns" on the group's sponsoring of a series of bombings throughout France. The police arrested 11,000 persons, who claimed that it was simply because of their appearance.<ref name="Bataille">{{in lang|fr}} Jean-Luc Einaudi: "La bataille de Paris: 17 octobre 1961", 1991; {{ISBN|2-02-013547-7}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Fenby|first=Jonathan|title=The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the War on Terror|publisher=Simon & Schuster UK|year=2015|isbn=978-1-4711-2930-8|location=London|pages=374–376|language=English}}</ref>

They were mostly people from the [[Maghreb]] but also included [[Spanish people|Spanish]], [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] and [[Italian people|Italians]]. They were sent, in a tragic echo of the Vichy regime, on public buses to the [[Parc des Expositions]], the [[Vélodrome d'Hiver]] and other such centres that had been used under Vichy as [[concentration camps in France|internment centers]]. A massacre occurred in the courtyards of the Prefecture of Police, and the detainees were held without specific charges. In the following days at the Parc des Expositions, detainees were subject to inhumane treatments. Arrests continued throughout October 1961. Meanwhile, bodies were found floating in the [[Seine River]].<ref name=":0"/>{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Up to 200 people were killed during the events, according to a prominent historian, Jean-Luc Einaudi.<ref name="Bataille"/> Because some archives have been destroyed and others remain classified, the exact number of the dead remains unknown. At the time, the French government, headed by de Gaulle, with [[Roger Frey]] as Interior Minister, admitted only two of the dead. A government inquiry in 1999 concluded 48 drownings on the one night and 142 similar deaths of Algerians in the weeks before and after, 110 of whom were found in the Seine. It also concluded the true toll was almost certainly higher. According to ''Le Monde'', Papon "organized the silence." It was only in the 1990s that historians began to speak out.<ref name="Monde"/> The French government reluctantly recognized 48 deaths, but the Paris Archives, consulted by historian [[David Assouline]], note 70 persons dead. Papon never acknowledged responsibility for that massacre.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

===February 1962 massacre===
Papon was also in charge during the [[Charonne subway massacre|8 February 1962 demonstration]] against the [[Organisation armée secrète|OAS]]'s violent campaign for "[[French Algeria]]." Organised by the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF), the demonstration had been banned by the state. Nine members of the [[Confédération Générale du Travail]] (CGT) trade union, most of them communists, were killed at [[Charonne métro station]] by the police, directed by Papon under the same government. The funerals on 13 February 1962 of the nine individuals killed (one being Fanny Dewerpe) were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.<ref>{{cite news|title=Charonne, passé au scalpel de l'historien (interview with historian Alain Dewerpe, member of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales)|date=6 February 2006|newspaper=[[L'Humanité]]|url=https://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-02-07/2006-02-07-823528}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Charonne et le 17 octobre enfin réunis|date=11 February 2006|newspaper=[[L'Humanité]]|url=https://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-02-11/2006-02-11-823808}}</ref><ref>Alain Dewerpe, ''Charonne, 8 février 1962, anthropologie historique d'un massacre d'Etat'', [[Gallimard]], 2006. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

On 8 February 2007, the [[Place du 8 Février 1962]], a square near the metro station, was dedicated by [[Bertrand Delanoë]], the [[mayor of Paris]], after bouquets of flowers were deposited at the foot of a commemorative plaque installed inside the metro station in which the killings occurred.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

===Ben Barka affair===
Papon was forced to leave his functions after the October 1965 kidnapping, in Paris, of [[Mehdi Ben Barka]], a Moroccan dissident and leader of the [[Tricontinental Conference]], in October 1965. Two French police agents and French secret agents participated in the [[forced disappearance]] that was at least ordered by Moroccan Interior Minister [[Mohamed Oufkir]]. It is still an unsolved case, involving various international intelligence agencies.

De Gaulle was forced to ask for Papon's resignation in early 1967;<ref name="Monde"/> Papon's successor was [[Maurice Grimaud]].