Flop adds to hard times for Corsican nationalists

Times are hard for A Cuncolta naziunalista, the legal branch of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC). Thirty of the group's leaders have been arrested since last winter, and revelations about their racketeering have hurt its credibility.

During his first visit to the island last month, the French Interior Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Chevenement, said he would treat Corsica like any other part of France.

So it was not surprising that A Cuncolta's annual festival of European nationalist movements, held in Corte, central Corsica, from August 8th to 10th, was a flop compared to the big gatherings of the early 1990s.

The conferences, attended in theory by "political" movements, were closely observed by French intelligence. Last year's meeting was cancelled after a car bomb killed an A Cuncolta militant and severely wounded the group's secretary-general.

This year, Sinn Fein - which attended previous conferences - sent its regrets. Nationalist groups from Brittany, Martinique and Guadeloupe offered messages of support, but also failed to make the journey.

Even the representative of the Jura Liberation Movement - which claims parts of France and Switzerland - had a car accident and missed the three-day conference. That left only the Basques and the Sardinians. Herri Batasuna, the political branch of the ETA Basque extremists, sent its Paris representative and the leader of its youth group.

The Basques gave a lecture on the alleged mistreatment of their militants in Spanish prisons. Like Corsican nationalists fighting the Paris government, Sardegna Nazione has combined political rhetoric and high explosives in attempts to win independence from Rome.

At the conference, militants walked around in T-shirts bearing the Corsican symbol of a Moor's head, or the more menacing image of a hooded gunman poised in a shooting position.

Corsican nationalists demand that Paris recognise them as a distinct people, that the national administration be dissolved at departement level, and obligatory teaching of the Corsican language from nursery school through to university.

If the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, and his government continues to turn a deaf ear, the ceasefire declared by the FLNC on June 17th could be of short duration. Past international conferences ended with an on-stage appearance by masked FLNC guerrillas. This year, French authorities made it clear they would not tolerate such theatrics and Corsican nationalists - who want to win more seats in regional elections next spring - emphasised their desire for peace and dialogue.