He was not demonstrating: on the night of 6 December 1986, he was leaving a music lesson when motorcycle police gave chase and beat him. He was twenty-two. The Devaquet bill was withdrawn. His stele reads “killed on 16 October 1964” — that is his date of birth.
The story
Malik Oussekine was born on 16 October 1964, into an Algerian family settled in France. A student, he had nothing to do with the demonstrations against the Devaquet university bill that were shaking Paris in December 1986.
On the night of 5 to 6 December 1986 he was coming out of a music lesson on the rue Monsieur-le-Prince. Police motorcycle squads gave chase, caught him in the entrance hall of a building and beat him. He died a few hours later. He was twenty-two.
The shock was immediate and enormous. The Devaquet bill was withdrawn within days and the minister resigned: few deaths ever had so quick a political effect.
The case fixed, for a generation, the question of police violence, the question of being stopped for one's face, and the name of a young man who was walking down a street. A television series was made about him in 2022.
He lies in Division 75, under a monument in oriental style whose inscriptions are in French and in Arabic. The wording cut into it is strange and deliberate: it gives his date of birth beneath the single word “tué” — killed.
The grave
A monument in oriental style, whose inscriptions are bilingual, in French and Arabic. The engraved text deserves a pause: “Malik Oussekine, killed on 16 October 1964, victim of 6 December 1986.” The first date is not that of his death but that of his birth, placed beneath the word “killed”; the second, that of 6 December, is introduced by “victim”. The asymmetry is deliberate: it says that this life was killed from one end to the other.
On site, do not miss
The engraved formula, to be read twice: “killed on 16 October 1964” — that is his date of birth.
Visitors' questions
Where is Malik Oussekine's grave?
In Division 75, chemin Bernard, first row, in the lower, eastern part of the cemetery. The monument is in the oriental style, and its inscriptions are bilingual, in French and Arabic.
Sadegh HedayatWhat happened on 6 December 1986?
He was leaving a music lesson in the rue Monsieur-le-Prince, having taken no part in the protests against the Devaquet bill. Motorcycle police officers gave chase, caught him in the lobby of a building and beat him; he died a few hours later.
The Communards' WallWhat were the political consequences?
Immediate: the Devaquet bill was withdrawn within days and the minister resigned. Rarely has a death had so swift a political effect in the history of the Fifth Republic.
Gerda TaroWhat is carved on his grave?
A deliberately lopsided formula: “Malik Oussekine, tué le 16 octobre 1964, victime du 6 décembre 1986” — killed on 16 October 1964, victim of 6 December 1986. The word “killed” comes before his date of birth — as if death had begun with life.
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