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Last rites for French magazine's dead

January 15, 2015

Funeral rites, even with cartoon tributes, have been held across France for five victims of last week's jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo. The magazine's print run has been raised to 5 million after kiosks sold out.

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Beerdigung von Bernard Verlhac
Image: Reuters/Wojazer

Two of France's best-loved cartoonists, Bernard Verlhac and Georges Wolinski were buried on Thursday at Paris' Pere Lachaise cemetery, the resting place of generations of artists, after separate funerals for each.

Verlhac's coffin was covered in drawings and messages. One depicted a "paradise survival kit." At Wolinski's funeral, one of his last drawings hung on the wall of the Pere Lachaise crematorium. Music of jazz great Miles Davis was played.

The funerals followed the release of a special edition of their magazine, whose makeover has sparked more heated debate in the Muslim world.

Large crowds also attended three further funerals on Thursday for those killed in the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Bernard Maris
Bernard Maris put economics in layman's termsImage: imago/MarcDeTienda/Panoramic

Columnist Elsa Cayat, the only women slain during last week's terror attack by the jihadis Cherif and Said Kouachi, was laid to rest in Paris' Montparnasse cemetery.

At Montgiscard, near the southwestern city of Toulouse, emotions ran high for leftist economist and radio commentator Bernard Maris. He was also killed when two Islamist gunmen burst in during the magazine's editorial conference on Wednesday last week.

One thousand mourners packed a church at Bernay in northern France for the funeral of policeman Franck Brinsolaro, who died while assigned to guard Charlie Hebdo's late editor, Stephane Charbonnier.

Charbonnier's funeral due on Friday

Otherwise known to many as Charb, he is to be buried at Pontoise, west of Paris on Friday.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at the Arab World Institute in Paris, again called for unity in the face of terror, saying Muslims themselves were the "primary victims of fanaticism."

Queues for special edition

Charlie Hebdo's special post-attack edition sold out in kiosks across Paris on Thursday, the second day since its release.

In Belgium the magazine sold out before dawn. The German news agency DPA quoted one kiosk owner as saying he had 150 people's names on a waiting list.

People lined up for a copy. Its cover shows the prophet Muhammad weeping, in a move that continues to draw ire in the Muslim world.

Some Muslims believe their faith forbids depictions of the prophet. In Pakistan, lawmakers marched outside parliament on Thursday to protest the magazine's latest edition.

Limits to free expression, says pope

Visiting the Philippines, Pope Francis said he believed there were limits to freedom of expression.

"You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others," said the Roman Catholic pontiff.

Jewish victims buried in Israel

Last week's triple jihadist attacks in the Paris area on Charlie Hebdo, a police patrol, and a Jewish kosher supermarket left dead 17 victims and three assailants who were subsequently killed by police.

Four Jewish victims killed during the jihadist attack on a Paris supermarket were buried in Israel on Tuesday.

The Yemen affiliate of al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) militia holding swaths of northern Syria and adjourning western Iraq, have both claimed responsibility for the bloodbath.

ipj/sb (dpa, AFP, AP)