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| Europe |
| Corsica Goes Boom Again |
| 2003-08-05 |
| Two explosions damaged a vacation resort and a local office of France’s state-run telecommunications company, police said Monday. No injuries were reported. Just your tourist trade The first of the blasts on this Mediterranean island took place Sunday night outside a France Telecom office in the northern town of Furiani, police said. Before dawn Monday, in the western town of Porticcio, an explosion rocked the entrance of a vacation resort near the western village of Furiani. Several cars parked nearby were also damaged. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Could it be these guys? Separatist groups in Corsica have led a campaign of bombings since the mid-1970s in a push for more autonomy. Most attacks target official buildings in the middle of the night to spare victims. However, the violence has intensified since a Paris court convicted eight separatists last month in connection with the 1998 killing of the top French official in Corsica. Corsican Dire Revenge Successive French governments have struggled unsuccessfully to end nearly two decades of low-level separatist violence. In the most recent attempt, the center-right government pitched a proposal that would have granted the Mediterranean island slightly more autonomy. But the measure, judged by many to be inadequate, was rejected in a referendum a week ago. Some people just don’t want to ruled by France. Go figure. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 France should just let 'em go. Let 'em find out just how expensive independence is. In a way it is a little bit of poetic justice. Seeing as how it was the French that fanned the flames of independence in Quebec |
| Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-8-5 5:58:26 PM |
| #2 When your country's flag has a Muslim's head on it, you've got to figure that violence goes with the territor. |
| Posted by: Christopher Johnson 2003-8-5 5:06:16 PM |
| #1 Total non-evenement : in the last two decades, "bad years" had about 500-600 explosions PER YEAR (that five to six hundred, yes!), while quiet years are about half that. I think the lowest were the two last year, before the "truce" was declared broken by the nationalists, with 100-150 booms. I can't confirm the numbers, but I kid you note about the scale of the phenomenon! Note that many of theses are criminals and/or about individual grudges. That's a real tradition. I think there are slightly over 250 000 corsicans on the islands. Calculate the ratio. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-8-5 1:10:01 PM |