Posted on 08/28/2003 5:24:47 AM PDT by Pikamax
28 Aug 2003 11:09:35 GMT France to boost Corsica security after bombing wave
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By Mark John
PARIS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - France pledged on Thursday to tighten security on the Mediterranean island of Corsica after an upsurge in bomb attacks raised fears of a bloody new phase in a decades-old separatist campaign.
Police stations, prisons, French holiday homes and other symbols of French rule have been attacked almost daily since proposals to offer Corsica greater autonomy were narrowly rejected in a July 6 referendum.
Some incidents have occurred in daylight, prompting fears that separatists were no longer favouring night attacks to limit casualties and were set on emulating Spain's Basque separatists ETA, western Europe's most active guerrilla force.
"We have to tell people there that the state will ensure that law is enforced and that the people who live in this part of France have recourse to justice," Justice Minister Dominique Perben told France Inter radio.
He said he would travel to the island on Monday to discuss with local officials tighter protection for targets including the Casabianda prison in northern Corsica, badly damaged by 100 kg (220 lb) of bombs on Monday.
Corsica suffered 51 bomb attacks last month. Nationalists are also suspected of an attack which devastated a tax and customs office in the centre of Nice on the French Riviera, injuring 16 people.
Government efforts to end three decades of violence on the island of 160,000 backfired last month when 51 percent of Corsicans voted against a plan to allow locals more say in areas from tax to tourism policy.
Local officials who backed the "No" vote have suffered attacks on their premises and some have been granted police protection. No arrests have been made but some attacks have been claimed by the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC).
An overwhelming majority of Corsicans want to remain part of France but jealously guard their culture, including a local language promoted in its schools, and resent too much interference from Paris in their affairs.
Last month's arrest of the chief suspect in the 1998 killing of Paris's top official on the island and a round-up of those who hid him from police during a three-year manhunt have stirred mixed emotions. Some Corsicans accuse Paris of a witchhunt.
"It's going from bad to worse," said radio political pundit Alain Duhamel.
"The hardcore of nationalists have abandoned the truce, redoubled their violence and seem tempted to follow ETA," he said of the campaign for a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern France that has killed over 840 people since 1968.
Others believe that while Corsicans may put up with sporadic attacks on property and tit-for-tat killings between rival separatist groups, they would not accept innocent casualties.
"Shards of glass that, in the night, simply smash across an empty street can do much harm in daytime," said Le Figaro daily. "When the first child is killed, that will be the signal for some major retaliation against the nationalists."
Well, Well,Well, I wonder what's next for the Socialist Country of France?
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