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'Killer French State': Protesters in Corsica clash with police over murdered leader

A protest rally in the French-run Mediterranean island of Corsica by supporters of murdered nationalist leader turns violent as protesters clash with police. (Photo by AFP)

A protest rally by supporters of Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna murdered in a prison in southern France last month has turned violent.

Nearly 14,000 protesters took part in the demonstration in front of the prefecture in the city of Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island, according to organizers, with more than 100 youths clashing with cops.

The protesters shouted slogans such as "Killer French State", pointing to growing anger over Colonna being denied protection in prison despite his repeated requests to serve out his jail term on his home island.

Participants in the demonstration included the island's nationalist and pro-autonomy leaders.

Colonna, 61, who was serving a life term, was beaten by another inmate, a Cameroonian militant, on March 2.

He was convicted for assassinating a top French government official in 1998, the most shocking of a series of attacks by an armed pro-independence group known as FLNC.

The murder sparked riots in Corsica, where many see him as a hero in the struggle for independence from France.

It invigorated the nationalist movement and led French President Emmanuel Macron's government to call for talks on offering greater political autonomy to the territory.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin committed to starting talks about the future of Corsica from the first week of April, but no date has been set yet.

Two previous protest rallies for Colonna last month also led to violent clashes between police and young protesters, some of whom set fire to vehicles and damaged buildings.

A decision to lower flags for Colonna on the regional Corsican council building and at Ajaccio airport last month caused deep unease on the French mainland, with Macron slamming the move as "an error and inappropriate."

The development came months after massive protests in the French-administered Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe, prompting Paris to offer the island’s leaders talks over their autonomy.

Guadeloupe and the nearby French island of Martinique have been the scene of protest rallies and violent clashes triggered by COVID-19 regulations but rooted in long-running concerns over the high cost of living, low wages, youth unemployment, and mistrust of the Paris government.

France had delayed implementing a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health workers in the two Caribbean islands after the measure spurred widespread protests on the French territories in which police officers were injured and journalists attacked.

In Guadeloupe, a historic mistrust of the French government’s handling of health crises exists after many people were systematically exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

The incident exposed a significant part of the population to health dangers and related cancers and polluted the soil.

The product was banned in the US in 1976 and in France in 1990, but special provisions were made for its continued use in the Caribbean territories until 1993.

Guadeloupe was colonized by France and is an overseas department of that nation, therefore, as a part of France, it is a member of the European Union.

There have been numerous attempts at autonomy since World War II, though none have been successful. The anger of people living in Guadeloupe is because a country 7,000 kilometers away is governing them, constantly treating them as second-class citizens.

Although Guadeloupe is economically dependent on France, people living on the island rarely enjoy a quality of life comparable to that of mainland France.

Guadeloupe receives 972 million Euros from the EU each year, but its youth-unemployment rate has hovered around 50 percent for decades.

Throughout history and during centuries, France, as a self-described human rights advocate, has remained one of the world's colonizing countries that after many years of slavery still controls nations spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens.


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