Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [British playwright Joe Orton: "We in the constabulary have a saying, never look in your own backyard - you might find what you're looking for."] Thursday September 6, 11:02 PM French investigators probe latest Corsica assassination BASTIA, France, Sept 6 (AFP) - French police were Thursday investigating links between the latest victim of a spate of assassinations in Corsica and the Mediterranean island's violent criminal and separatist groups. Nicolas Montigny, 26, was shot dead in an Internet cafe in the Corsican town of Bastia late Wednesday by two masked men armed with handguns. Police said he was thought to be a member of the armed nationalist faction Armata Corsa -- the third suspected member of the group to be killed in less than a month -- but was also a suspected underworld figure. Prosecutors in Bastia said Thursday that for the moment their inquiry was concentrating on Montigny's criminal links, although they were not ruling out the possibility of a political motive. Montigny was imprisoned for six-months from December 1999 as police attempted to prove that he was one of a group of masked militants who gave a press conference to announce the creation of Armata Corsa. The splinter group split from another section of the Corsican nationalist movement in 1999 and its presumed leaders, Francois Santoni and Jean-Michel Rossi, have accused their former colleagues of links with mafia-style crime. Rossi was shot dead last year and Santoni last month. Santoni's assassination was followed by the double murder of two more Corsicans, including Dominique Marcelli, said by police to have links with Armata Corsa. No one has been arrested for any of the murders, but press reports have suggested the men were the victims of a vendetta with a separatist group connected to the "Sea Breeze" gang -- a group of armed robbers named after the Bastia cafe in which they met in the 1970s. The Sea Breeze gang is thought to be associated with the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC), the largest separatist group. The FLNC declared a ceasefire in December 1999 in its war against French rule after Prime Minister Lionel Jospin set in motion a plan to give the island limited autonomy. That peace process is now under pressure as Armata Corsa have threatened to avenge the murder of their comrades, which came amid a series of bomb attacks against politicians and police stations. Some of Jospin's political rivals in France have called on him to abandon the autonomy offer, saying the killings are proof that the peace process is not working. Jospin has insisted that the plan is the only way to bring to an end a quarter century of violence. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
