National Front for the Liberation of Corsica

FLNC

12/12/2006

By way of history, two Corsican terrorist organizations, the Ghjustizia Paolina and the Fronte Paesanu Corsu di Liberazione merged in 1976 to form the FLNC. With their combined strength they detonated two thousand bombs in the late 1970s and 1980s. The group was splintered again, and again, in the early 1990s due to political rivalries. Then in 1997, the FLNC's most popular splinter group decided to end its reign of terror. However, the Canal Historique derivative saw this as an opportunity and expanded its operations, re-adopting of the name FLNC. Cease fires and breaches thereof, splintering and reuniting have characterized the FLNC since December 1999. Its lack of a cohesive identity have probably contributed to the organization's instability. It isn't enough just to hate.

The actual number of FLNC members is hard to determine, but it was always less than one thousand. There were at least 600 because that was the number of armed militants present during a nocturnal press conference the FLNC conducted on January 11th, 1996 in the Corsican village of Tralonca. These remarkably active terrorists limited their activities to Corsica, continental France, and towns considered to represent the Corsican diaspora like Marseille, Nice, Toulon, Paris, and Lyon. The FLNC was funded by way of armed bank robberies, extortion by way of the Islamic "protection tax," and kidnapping for ransom. While there methods were mostly Islamic, so were many of their targets.

FLNC attacks were principally aimed at public infrastructure, banks, tourist facilities, military or police buildings, or other symbolic targets in Corsica. In the early 1990s, rivalries between the different factions led to scores of people being killed.

The purpose of their destructive campaign was to achieve independent statehood for the small island of Corsica and to preserve the Corsican language (an Italian dialect) and culture. But they are not an equal opportunity gang. An influx of North Africans led to an increase in racial violence and discrimination perpetrated in the name of the FLNC. The group openly advocated preferential treatment for racial Corsicans over Africans.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was the first to engage in talks with the Corsican terrorists. He negotiated the brief 1999 ceasefire. In July 2000, he proposed that the island be allowed a significant degree of autonomy including local legislation and the ability to teach the Corsican dialect and curriculum in schools. In July of 2003, however, Corsicans narrowly rejected the French offer of self-determination in a referendum by a 51% to 49% vote.