France: scuffles during the demonstration of support for Yvan Colonna in Bastia
The demonstration in support of Yvan Colonna in Bastia this Sunday March 13 brought together up to 10,000 people according to its organizers.
AFP - PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Several thousand people gathered in Bastia this Sunday, March 13 in support of the separatist Yvan Colonna in serious condition after his attack in prison.
Clashes broke out with the police.
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“French State assassin”: the tone was immediately set on Sunday in Bastia during the demonstration in support of Yvan Colonna,
eleven days after the attack in prison on this independence activist
convicted for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac.
Taken up by the crowd of a few thousand people who left under a fine and cold rain from the Bastia courthouse, this slogan reflected the tension on the island since March 2 and the attack on the Cargèse shepherd in the prison of Arles. (Bouches-du-Rhône), which plunged him into a coma.
And the anger quickly grew when the procession arrived at the Prefecture, with scuffles between the police and 200 to 300 hooded demonstrators, dressed in black and some equipped with gas masks, the first responding with tear gas to molotov cocktails.
10,000 people according to the organizers
The official call for the demonstration was however sober, asking for "
truth and justice for Yvan, freedom for the patriots and the recognition of the Corsican people
".
But for Gilles Simeoni, autonomist president of the executive council of Corsica and former lawyer for Yvan Colonna, present in the procession, "
we must go today beyond the slogans
": "
Anger and indignation are expressed,
a he conceded at the start of this march.
But what matters is that the entire Corsican people are mobilized against injustice, the demand for truth and beyond for a real political solution
” between the State and Corsica.
If the mobilization this Sunday was "
huge
", according to Gilles Simeoni, the figures were 7,000 demonstrators for the prefecture, against 10,000 according to the organizers of the rally.
For the Corte demonstration a week ago the figures were 4,200 and 15,000 people respectively.
(
With
AFP)
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