There were the barbouzes the bearded ones and the section d’action civique both of which used unorthodox methods to hunt out those

There were the “barbouzes” (the bearded ones) and the section d’action civique, both of which used unorthodox methods to hunt out those who were considered to be the enemies of the Republic.Frey was accused of making France into a police state He claimed that France was in danger of civil war. He blamed Algerian nationalists for October 1961 and the Communist Party for February 1962, although later claiming that both incidents had been provoked by the OAS.Beyond the official police he made use of special groups. But on 8 February 1962 some 8,000 trade unionists tried to demonstrate in Place de la Bastille. The police attacked them violently and eight demonstrators were killed as they tried to take refuge in the metro station Charonne. Half a million people followed their coffins when they were buried on 13 February.Frey was held responsible for the events (along with Maurice Papon, the Prefect of Police, who had been an officer under Vichy and who is to be tried next month for crimes against humanity committed in 1942 and 1944). The Ministry of the Interior announced that two Algerians had been killed. But soon other figures were produced suggesting that 60 or 70 had been killed This was denied by the minister.

Her photograph deeply moved the French public and the trade unions, claiming that the government was not doing enough to protect people, organised a massive demonstration The minister forbade this. The figure remains uncertain but it seems likely that more than 200 Algerians perished. Apparently, Frey remained unmoved.At the beginning of 1962 the Secret Army (the OAS) multiplied its terrorist attacks and, in an attempt to blow up Andre Malraux’s house, a four-year- old girl was badly injured in the face. French police were attacked (64 were killed between 1958 and 1962), the Algerians fought amongst themselves, and the Secret Army of the French settlers in Algeria – who were opposed to independence – began to act as a terrorist group within France.The government therefore decreed that a curfew should come into force forbidding Algerians to be on the streets in Paris and its suburbs after 8.30pm.The Algerian nationalists demonstrated against this treatment on 17 October 1961 Twenty thousand tried to converge on the centre of Paris They were attacked by some 9,000 police and security guards. They were not disarmed by the referendum of January 1961 whereby 75 per cent of the French population in France had accepted the independence of Algeria. As Minister of the Interior in France from 1961 Roger Frey had the reputation of being an easy man in cabinet meetings, presided over by de Gaulle, accepting the President’s criticisms with a smile, and occasionally whispering irreverent pleasantries into the ear of an embarrassed colleague. But publicly he was a hard and secretive minister.
His justification was that these were times of desperate danger.

Algerian nationalists had for long been fighting the battle of Paris. His work was exhibited in England at the ICA (1983) and at York City Art Gallery (where a 36ft leaning tower by Rossi was erected) and the RIBA, London, in 1987. The closest thing to a Rossi building in London is the temporary scaffolding cover of the Albert Memorial.Aldo Rossi’s ideas and images were influential on many architects who have been labelled Post-Modernist, particularly in their search for the reconstruction of the city. He wrote in 1988, “I still have a dream of great civil architecture; not the concordance of discord, but the city that is beautiful because of the wealth and variety it contains. I believe in the future of the city for this reason.”He suffered a serious car crash in 1971 and planned the Modena Cemetery during his recovery.

He died as the result of another crash near his home in Milan.-. Roger Frey, French politician: born Noumea, New Caledonia 11 June 1913; President of the Constitutional Council 1974-83; married (two children); died 13 September 1997. He taught at Arezzo, Milan, Zurich, Venice, Yale and the Cooper Union, New York. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1990.On a less exalted level Rossi will be remembered as the designer of a range of coffeepots for Alessi which were marketed as expensive objects of fashionable taste in the 1980s.