PARIS, July 25: Habib Bourguiba, the father of Tunisian independence, is to be honoured by France, three years after his death on April 6, 2000, at the age of 96 and 44 years after he had declared his country’s independence from France on March 20, 1956.

August 4, which is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the “Supreme combatant” as Bourguiba is known in Tunisian history books, has been chosen by the City of Paris to unveil a “public space” that is to be named in his honour.

In publicly announcing his decision to give Mr Bourguiba’s name to an important street or place in the French capital, the first time apparently this will be done in a major French city, Mayor Bertrand Delanoe noted that “Paris will thereby render homage to a statesman who led his country towards independence with determination, and endowed it with republican institutions.”