President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has called on France to admit its part in the massacres of 45,000 Algerians who took to the streets to demand independence as Europe celebrated victory over Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945.
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the French administration fired on peaceful demonstrators.
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Colonial forces launched an air and ground offensive against several eastern cities, particularly Setif and Guelma, in response to anti-French riots, which killed some 100 Europeans.

The crackdown lasted several days and according to the Algerian state left 45,000 people dead. European historians put the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000.

It marks one of the darkest chapters in the history of Algeria and France, which ruled the North African country brutally from 1830 until 1962.
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The repression sparked the anti-colonial movement and a long war of independence, costing the lives of 1.5 million Algerians, according to the government. Many French also perished.
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"Sixty years later, France does not recognize its crimes against humanity," Algerian French-language newspaper La Tribune said on its front page.