Brittany Demands Autonomy

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31904, 4 February 1969, Page 19

Brittany Demands Autonomy

(From

HOWARD WILLIAMS

in Paris)

President de Gaulle suffered humiliation on his three-day visit to Brittany because he has given no indication of making any concession to the Breton demand for autonomy. Some three weeks before his visit police in Brittany seized more than 2000 explosives and arrested several leaders, including four priests, of the clandestine Brittany Republican Army (A.R.8.).

The A.R.B, is the military wing of the Breton Liberation Front (F.L.8.), the most extremist Celtic nationalist organisation in France.

At least 20 members of the A.R.B. have been arrested. They include the alleged “head of logistics,” Father Antoine Le Bars; his younger brother, Father Arthur Le Bars; Father Guillaume le Cam; and Father Joseph Lec’Hvien. The Le Bars brothers are vicars of Saint-Breuic and Callac, respectively; Father le Cam is rector of a neighbouring parish; and Father

Lec’Hvien is the principal of a church school. Police claim that the four priests had hidden explosives in their vicarages and the school and that the Le Bars brothers had confessed to their parts in the organisation of the A.R.B. and had helped police uncover large quantities of explosives. At least two kevrens (cells) of the A.R.B. have now been broken and scores of police from other districts have been brought in to help in the massive search for at least another 14 kevrens. Leader In Ireland The alleged head of the A.R.8., Yann Goulet, is out of reach of the police in Dublin, Ireland, where he has been living for several years. Attempts by the French authorities to have Goulet extradited in recent years have failed on the grounds that any trials or alleged crimes are based on political offences. The A.R.B. has for several years been waging a war of terrorism in its claim for the establishment of an independent state of Britanny. The F.L.B. had planned to distribute about 10,000 leaflets, during General de Gaulle’s visit to Britanny, calling for “Bretagne Libre” —an obvious dig at the general’s infamous “Quebec Libre” speech. Groups Appeased The Breton nationalists are the most militant of the French ethnic groups seeking independence from Paris. Alpinist and Basque nationalists have been largely appeased by the Paris government with generous investment grants and more autonomy in local affairs. Massive resort developments in the ski areas around Grenoble quietened the Alpi-

nist nationalists and coastal resort development around Perpignan appears to have succeeded in stemming the flow of Basque nationalism which is now waging through Northern Spain. However, similar offers to the Bretons have been rejected as insufficient. The F.L.B. and A.R.B. have stated that they will not be satisfied until Britanny is declared an independent state with total autonomy.