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Corsica rejects autonomy offer by Paris
AJACCIO, Corsica (Reuters) -- The unruly Mediterranean island of Corsica rejected a French government offer of limited autonomy by a wafer-thin majority in a referendum on Sunday, the interior minister said. Nicolas Sarkozy, who campaigned hard for a "Yes'' vote in a part of France that was supposed to be first to benefit from plans for wider decentralisation, said the "No'' camp won with a score of 50.98 percent, versus 49.02 percent for the "Yes'' camp. "The government will respect their choice,'' the minister said live on television. "The status quo stays.'' The isle, which lies 160 km (100 miles) south of France's Riviera coast, has been plagued by separatist violence since the mid-1970s and the conservative government in Paris billed the referendum as a historic chance to restore prosperity and peace. Sarkozy had hoped Corsicans would follow the example of the peaceful Italian island of Sardinia, saying before voting day: "Sardinia, just nine km (six miles) away, has enjoyed autonomy since 1948 and has no independence seekers.'' Some 191,000 voters were asked if they wanted to scrap two administrative departments and back changes that would give an assembly of locally elected politicians more say over matters such as tax, tourism and the environment. Sarkozy said the participation rate had been "impressive'' at 60 percent, and officials said the result came down a divide of no more than 2,000 votes. Male-dominated worldA "Yes'' vote would have obliged the notoriously male-dominated world of Corsican public life to adopt quotas to ensure a minimum participation rate for women. Jean-Claude Casanova, a Corsica expert at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, said on LCI TV: "Corsica is less of a problem than Northern Ireland and it's less of a problem than the Basque country, so it should be solvable.'' Despite the blow, Sarkozy said: "My priority in the coming months will be to ensure peace and security on the island. The state cannot play absent. The age of impunity is over.'' Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, has been plagued for decades by Mafia-style racketeering as well as the constant, low-intensity, violence of rival separatist groups. The latest cycle of violence began in 1975 when French President Jacques Chirac was prime minister. Two policemen were shot dead when they tried to flush gunmen out of a cave. Guerrilla groups then launched a campaign for independence that many of the island's population of about 270,000 do not support, but dare not openly oppose. Tourism, one of the major sources of income on an island heavily dependent on state aid and civil service employment, has been largely unaffected by the violence. Turquoise seas and picture-book beaches front rugged mountains that were never fully conquered under a succession of rulers. The city state of Genoa held sway for centuries before giving Corsica to France in 1768 to help pay off a debt. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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