Corsicans turn violent

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 12

Corsicans turn violent

From the “Economist,” London

Corsican autonomists seem to be heading for a showdown with France. The atmosphere on this Mediterranean island has become more volatile than at any time since the home-rule mood sprang back to life 15 years ago.

111-feeling against France reached a climax last week when thousands of demonstrators marched through Ajaccio, the island’s capital, and invaded the airport. A seven-man force hustled 181 passengers off an Air France Boeing 707 and blew up the aeroplane.

The explosion came only two weeks after a unit led by Dr Max Simeoni, a softspoken, but determined home-rule advocate, burnt down a wine depot and took to the maquis, the legendary hiding place of Corsican bandits.

Unrest in Corsica has developed more from economic grievances than from a yearning for independence. It has come back to haunt the Interior Minister (Mr Michel Poniatowski) who was pilloried for his hand-

ling of the series of violent Corsican outbreaks last year in which three policemen were killed. His enormous show of police power, including the despatch of tanks and parachutists from France, only inflamed Corsican passions. The most serious of last year’s incidents led to the gaoling by a State security court of Dr Simeoni’s brother, Edmond, who is serving a five-year term in Paris.

Mr Poniatowski is demanding “infinite firmness” against those who destroyed the Air France jet; 30 of the 80 people arrested are still in prison and several have been taken to the mainland. But imprisoning people only deepens the revolts. Just as many of the recent bombings have been protests against the imprisonment of Edmond Simeoni, so the airliner blaze was the climax of demonstrations against the confinement of the leader of the truck drivers’ union, Jacques Fieshi. He was gaoled for two weeks on August 31 after a fight with police. The fracas grew out of a

protest he led against the limited ferry service between Corsica and the mainland.

The expense of shipping goods from France is a recurring complaint of autonomists, who claim that they earn less than mainlanders but have to pay more for everything. The island’s economy has long been running down.

Wine has been a bitter element in the violence because of local resentment against the pieds noirs settlers from Algeria who came to Corsica after the Algerian war and planted barren scrubland with vines, often becoming extremely rich.

Not all Corsicans feel as strongly as the militants. Perhaps one in four will come out openly in favour of their extreme actions. But the “anti-repression committee” which organised last week’s Ajaccio march represents all segments of the island’s 270,000 population.

The activists believe home rule is their only hope for improving the island’s economy. They have little confidence in assurances from Paris. Talk about Corsica becoming France’s Northern Ireland still seems far fetched, but the sense of grievance is spreading.