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Europe
Corsican nationalist killed
2003-08-25
A Corsican nationalist militant was killed in a drive-by shooting last night on the French-ruled Mediterranean island, police sources said. Maurice Galeani, 50, was shot several times by two men on a motorcycle as he rode a scooter through Ajaccio in the southwest of the island, which has been plagued by decades of violence linked to demands for independence from mainland France.
There’s another one of those killer motorcycles.
Police were hunting for the attackers, who managed to escape. Galeani, who was previously affiliated with the Corsican National Liberation front (FLNC), had been convicted in 1987 for his role in two bomb attacks. Corsica rejected a French government offer of limited autonomy in a referendum in July.
Internal feud or asassinated by the brutal French occupation forces? I think this decades long conflict demands intervention by the United Nations!
Posted by:Steve

#6  I was being sarcastic, but hadn't realized that Corsica had such a rich background. Almost pulled into port there once for a Christopher Columbus celebration but the weather was too rough. Evidently, Corsica is one of several "birthplaces" of Columbus. Corsica sounds like Crete - unique in culture but just as happy not to be independent.
Posted by: Steve D   2003-8-25 9:37:23 PM  

#5  JFM,

Yes, we have the same problem with Puerto Rico.
Posted by: Ernest Brown   2003-8-25 8:33:50 PM  

#4  Ah, JFM, I think Steve D was being sarcastic. I do think it's funny that they call Corsica a "French-ruled" island. Hmmmm, why not French-occupied? The French are so wildly hypocritical, phony and just plain annoying that they make a great target.

And JFM, that Corsican chief of state you mentioned, that wouldn't be Napoleon Bonaparte would it?
Posted by: Jabba the Nutt   2003-8-25 7:42:11 PM  

#3  First: Because when Corsica was occupied by Italians the inhabitants shot at them

Second: Because the people who want secession are a _small_ minority.

Third: Because there are more Corsicans outside the island than it and they don't suffer any discrimination. There have been Corsicans ministers and, there was even one of them who became chief of state. :-) Can you say the same thing respective to your minorities?

Fourth: Try to forget about Chirak (a bastard), and what France has done under his misleadership.
Look at the situation dispassionately: why aren't you asking the same thing about Sicily, Sardinia, Baleares, Creta or the Canary Islands (where a bansd of nutsos who are about 1% of the populatuion insist in that Canary people are Africans and should join Morocco). The fact Chirac is a bastard should not alter your judgement.
Posted by: JFM   2003-8-25 6:06:42 PM  

#2  Why does France maintain ownership of an offshore island of culterally seperate inhabitants? Are the French imperialist?
Posted by: Steve D   2003-8-25 3:17:24 PM  

#1  More likely related to drug or extortion business. The independentists are heavily mingled with the Corsican maffia in such kinds of deals (look at the crumbling of the Bastia stadium who caused over a hundred dead and may hundred wounded). BTW, when asked how Corsica would fund itself after the independency they answer "we would form a Union with Sardinia and Sicily". I am really sorry to dispel your romantic ideas about Corsica's "freedom fighters".

BTW the independentist get about 10% of the votes so Corsica is about as "occupied" as say, California or Texas.
Posted by: JFM   2003-8-25 3:13:49 PM  

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