French leaders reaffirmed their rule over Corsica yesterday after the weekend assassination of a senior official. Flanked by the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, President Jacques Chirac said France "will not tolerate" more violence on the troubled Mediterranean island and denounced mafia-style gangsterism.
By killing the Prefect of Corsica, Mr Claude Erignac, on Friday night, the unknown attackers had tried to hit the "authority of the state and France's integrity," Mr Chirac charged.
Life ground to a halt across the picturesque island as church bells tolled to mark the start of a 15minute silence in memory of Mr Erignac. Flags across France were flown at half-mast and prefectures held a minute's silence.
At a ceremony watched by several thousands in the island capital, Mr Chirac said that "murderous folly, the politics of the worst Mafia involvement" had motivated the killers against the state.
In Paris Le Monde said police were investigating the theory that Mr Erignac was the victim of a Mafia killing linked to casino interests, rather than one linked to separatist causes.
The report said Mr Erignac had opposed two schemes involving casinos because of fears Italian Mafia money might be involved.
Soon after taking up his posting in Corsica in 1996, Mr Erignac opposed a bid to buy an old fortress in the town of Bonifacio that was to be turned into a hotel complex with a casino. He also blocked a plan adopted by the Ajaccio city council to increase the number of slot-machines in the casino there on the grounds that an Italian mafioso could take a stake there, Le Monde said.
Earlier a previously unknown group, claiming a separatist cause, said it was responsible for the assassination.
In a three-page typewritten claim of the murder sent to the local press, the unknown group said: "The action we are claiming today was perfectly thought-out and highly political.
"It is not the work of deviationists or an isolated action by socalled `renegade soldiers' of the nationalist struggle, or even less a criminal action as some people will not fail to say."
The claim was not signed but was regarded as authentic because it gave manufacturer's reference numbers for a Beretta 9 mm pistol used by the gunmen that was found at the scene of the killing. The weapon has been identified by police as one seized from gendarmes last September in an attack claimed by a group calling itself Sampieru.
Police yesterday arrested 13 suspects in raids targeting nationalist groups suspected of involvement in Mr Erignac's murder. He was shot in the street in the back of the head while on his way to attend a concert.
Corsica has been hit by thousands of bombings since the launch of a separatist movement in 1975 but there have been relatively few murders.
Mr Erignac's murder came just two weeks after one separatist group, the FLNC-Historic wing, announced an end to a seven-month ceasefire.