World leaders in unity as 3m rally in Paris

FRENCH media estimate up to 3m took part in the Paris rally for unity against terrorism — more than the numbers who took to the capital’s streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in the Second World War.

France’s Interior Ministry said the Paris rally for unity against terrorism was the largest demonstration in France’s history — a march organised to show harmony after three days of attacks that left 17 dead.

Calling the rally “unprecedented,” the ministry said the demonstrators were so numerous that they spread beyond the official march route, making them impossible to count.

“It’s a different world today,” said Parisian Michel Thiebault, 70. He was among a crowd wildly cheering police as their vans made their way through the crowd — a prospect unheard of at the frequent protests held in France, where police and demonstrators are often at odds.

Their arms linked, more than 40 world leaders headed the somber procession, setting aside their differences for a manifestation that French president François Hollande said turned the city into “the capital of the world”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood near Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov also marched.

The deadly attacks on a satirical newspaper, kosher market and police marked a turning point for France that some compared to that of September 11 in the US.

In the weeks and months ahead, the cruelty will test how attached the French — an estimated 5m of whom are Muslims — really are to their liberties and to each other.

“Our entire country will rise up toward something better,” Hollande said yesterday.

The aftermath of the attacks remained raw, with video emerging of one of the gunmen killed during police raids pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing how the attacks were going to unfold.

Also, a new shooting was linked to that gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed on Friday along with the brothers behind a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces.

Rallies were held throughout France and major cities around the world, including London, Madrid and New York — all attacked by al-Qaida-linked extremists — as well as Cairo, Sydney, Stockholm, and Tokyo.

On Paris’ Place de la République, deafening applause rang out as the world leaders walked past, amid tight security and an atmosphere of togetherness amid adversity. Families of the victims, holding each other for support, marched in the front along with the leaders, and journalists working for Charlie Hebdo.

The leaders marched down Voltaire Boulevard — named after the Enlightenment-era figure who symbolizes France’s attachment to freedom of expression. One marcher bore a banner with his famed pledge: “I do not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it.”

The three days of terror began when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen said it directed the attack by the masked gunmen to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly’s satire. Charlie Hebdo assailed Christianity, Judaism as well as officialdom of all stripes with its brand of sometimes crude satire that sought to put a thumb in the eye of authority and convention.

On Thursday, police said Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the outskirts of Paris and on Friday, the attackers converged. While the Kouachi brothers holed up in a printing plant near Charles de Gaulle airport, Coulibaly seized hostages inside a kosher market. It all ended at dusk on Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the market that left all three gunmen dead. Four hostages at the market were also killed.

Five people held in connection with the attacks were freed late on Saturday, leaving no one in custody. Coulibaly’s widow is still being sought and was last traced near the Turkey-Syrian border.

Posthumous video emerged yesterday of Coulibaly, who prosecutors said was newly linked by ballistics tests to a third shooting — the Wednesday attack on a jogger in a Paris suburb that left the man, 32, gravely injured.

In the video, Coulibaly speaks fluent French and broken Arabic, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing the terror operation he said was about to unfold.