The Hindu : Autonomy plan rejected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

International

International - Globescan

Autonomy plan rejected

AJACCIO (Corsica): The French Government suffered an embarrassing setback with Corsicans narrowly rejecting a plan to give more autonomy to their Mediterranean island racked for years by separatist violence that struck again on Monday. About 51 per cent of Corsicans rejected the plan in a referendum on Sunday, a personal failure for the law-and-order Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. It came two days after a victory for the Interior Minister — the arrest of the prime suspect in the 1998 killing of Paris' top representative to Corsica, Claude Erignac. The arrest ended a four-year search for France's most wanted man. Hours after the results were announced, explosions rocked four summer homes (the rubble of one building seen in the picture) owned by Parisians and other mainland French in southern Corsica, near Cargese, the hometown of the suspect, Ivan Colonna, police said. Colonna's arrest became a central issue in explaining the outcome of the referendum. Some accused the conservative government of a political manoeuvre aimed at procuring a `yes' vote for the reform. — AP

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Autonomy plan rejected