“The French State is not an assassin“, affirmed the prefect of Corsica on Monday March 7 in response to the slogan widely taken up in Corsica during the demonstrations organized since the attack on Wednesday of the independence activist Yvan Colonna, seriously injured by a fellow prisoner.
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“The French State is not a murderous State, the French State has never been a murderous State, to pretend otherwise is contrary to the truth“, Amaury de Saint-Quentin, new prefect of Corsica, told AFP after a press conference. “I am sad and unhappy to see such a slogan worn on a territory where France and the Republic have done so much“, he added in reference to the slogan in the Corsican language “Statute English Assassinu», Widely taken up on Sunday in a demonstration which brought together 4,200 people, according to the prefecture, 15,000, according to the nationalists who organized it. The Colonna family and the nationalists denounce “malfunctionsof the prison administration that led to the attack on Yvan Colonna and accuse the State of having always refused the Corsican activist to serve his sentence on the island.
College and high school students demonstrate
“The urgency today is to renew the dialogue with all the actors of the territory and find the path of appeasement“, insisted the prefect. Assuring “understand the pain, the anger of some“, however, he felt that this “drama» «does not justify violencewhich punctuated the demonstrations, especially on Sunday, with around twenty demonstrators and four injured gendarmes.
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On Monday, 11 colleges and high schools out of the 47 on the island experienced “blocks and attempted blocksled by students in support of Yvan Colonna, according to the rectorate, and the University of Corsica was still blocked at the call of three nationalist student unions Ghjuventu Paolina (GP), Ghjuventu Indipendentista (GI) and Cunsulta di a Ghjuventu Corsa . High school students demonstrated in front of the Haute-Corse prefecture in Bastia. “Projectiles were thrown at the policeand burnt garbage cans, a spokesperson for the prefecture told AFP, adding that the prefecture and the Collectivity of Corsica share premises. The demonstration ended in the early evening, according to the prefecture.
“Power of dialogue”
New gatherings are planned for Monday evening in Aix-en-Provence and in several Corsican cities. Wanting to be soothing, the prefect of Corsica, who arrived on the island last Thursday but officially taking office on Monday, assured that he wants a state “close to Corsica and the Corsicans“. “I register as a partner of elected officials, of all elected officials regardless of their political color“, he insisted. The Bishop of Ajaccio Mgr François Bustillo also made a point of addressing, in a press release, “(s) are Corsican brothers in these troubled days“. “Faced with social tension, we believe in the duty and the power of dialogue to repair trust and reconcile citizens. The path of strength is deadly“wrote the bishop. “The spirit of vengeance and violence engenders barbarism. The path from fratricidal temptation to fraternity is possible“, he added.
The independence activist Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, was violently attacked by a fellow prisoner on Wednesday at the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). Since then, he has been between life and death, treated in a Marseille hospital. In Paris, his attacker, Franck Elong Abe, 35, was indicted on Sunday for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterpriseand remanded in custody. On Monday, the custody of another fellow prisoner was lifted, according to sources familiar with the matter. Smaïn Ait Ali Belkacem, sentenced to life for an attack in Paris in 1995, had been interrogated for “find out what he possibly knew about the projectby Franck Elong Abé.
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