Corsica: tense rallies in front of police barracks
High school students and young people hold a banner that reads "French state murderer" as they march towards the Corse-du-Sud prefecture in Ajaccio during a demonstration on March 10, a week after the attack in prison of nationalist figure Yvan Colonna.
AFP - PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
More than 500 people demonstrated this Sunday, March 27 in a tense atmosphere in front of a CRS barracks near Bastia, following the call of independence organizations which accuse some CRS of having sung the Marseillaise on the day of the funeral of the activist Yvan Colonna.
In Ajaccio, some 200 people also gathered.
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There were several hundred to respond to the call to demonstrate in front of the Furiani barracks, south of Bastia, launched by the independence movements Core in Fronte, Corsica Libera (minority in the Assembly of Corsica) and nationalist student unions.
The latter are the main drivers of the mobilization that took place after the death of Yvan Colonna, attacked in prison while serving a life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac in 1998.
Shortly after the start of the rally in the early evening, a few dozen young people shook the gates of the cantonment, lighting a fire, provoking tear gas from the CRS.
A sign in Corsican "
Francesi di merda
" (French shit) was also hung, according to an AFPTV journalist.
About fifty hooded demonstrators threw stones, smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails at the police.
Two people among the police were slightly injured in the hand, the Haute-Corse prefecture told AFP.
Firefighters reported minor injuries to protesters.
In Furiani, a dozen motolov cocktails were fired by demonstrators at the CRS, who did not respond with jets of tear gas and encirclement grenades.
In total, around 1000 people are present.
pic.twitter.com/s5l8rzxzWa
– France 3 Corsica (@FTViaStella) March 27, 2022
In Ajaccio, some 200 people also gathered in front of the Aspretto barracks.
Some demonstrators lit a fire in front of the gate, resulting in a response from the police with tear gas canisters and water cannons, noted an AFP correspondent.
The dispersal took place shortly after 8 p.m.
Since Saturday, nationalist circles have been indignant on social networks at a
video allegedly shot within the CRS cantonment of Furiani
on the day of the funeral where a Marseillaise is heard without distinguishing those present.
The Corsican deputy Jean-Félix Aquaviva (Liberties and territories group) sees it for example on Twitter as "
pure hatred
" and asks "
immediately to account to the government
".
For the autonomist party Femu a Corsica of the president of the executive council of Corsica Gilles Simeoni, who however did not call to demonstrate, it is about "
colonial hatred in the pure state
".
“
There are two worlds and when there is such a strong sociological divide, there may be a need for de facto separations
”, reacted in the demonstration by Furiani Paul-Félix Benedetti, independence leader of Core in Forehead.
Contacted by AFP, the police information and communication service (Sicop) did not wish to make “
communication on this video
”.
According to a police union source interviewed by AFP, “
this company was on rest and they ate outside, because the weather was right.
As usual, they sang many songs including La Marseillaise, but unrelated to Yvan Colonna's funeral
.
Another union source said: "
The songs are real, but no connotation of anything
", another source said that no words against Yvan Colonna were heard.
(
With AFP
)
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To read also Corsica: what now?
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