Cold-blooded Iguana will not be missed

Not many will weep for Mr Francois "the Iguana" Santoni, the Corsican nationalist who was gunned down in front of his mistress and father as he left a village wedding at Monacia-d'AullΘne on the south of the island early yesterday.

Not Prime Minister Lionel Jospin; his advisers believe Mr Santoni founded "Armata Corsa", which murdered three people and set off 20 bombs in the past two years. The group had two obsessions: sabotaging Mr Jospin's Matignon Accords on Corsican autonomy and avenging the murder a year ago of Mr Santoni's friend Mr Jean-Michel Rossi.

Mr Jean-Guy Talamoni and Mr Charles Pieri won't mourn him. Mr Santoni called the nationalist leaders he quarrelled with "mafiosi" in All Accounts Settled, the book he published with Mr Rossi two months before Mr Rossi was murdered. The suave Mr Talamoni angered the thuggish Mr Santoni by replacing him as the French government's chief interlocutor. Mr Santoni and Mr Pieri were once rival leaders of the political wing of the extremist FLNC-canal historique. Mr Santoni claimed that Mr Pieri ordered Mr Rossi's assassination on a mobile phone from his prison cell near Paris.

Least likely to shed a tear for "the Iguana" is Ms Marie-Helene Mattei, the voluptuous blonde lawyer who left Mr Santoni for Mr Pieri. She and Mr Talamoni both received unexploded letter-bombs last month - sent, police suspected, by Mr Santoni.

Mr Santoni joined the FLNC in 1978, when he was 18. He epitomised the "military" wing of nationalists whose "civil war" with "politicals" claimed dozens of lives in the early 1990s. Mr Santoni's ice-cold demeanour, shaved head and hulking figure earned him the sobriquet "Iguana". He had been sentenced to 14 years in prison, of which he served six, and was appealing a four-year sentence for racketeering. But the death of the most dangerous opponent of the Matignon Accords does not increase the agreement's chances of enactment. Le Monde said: "Inevitably, it will be suggested . . . that the Jospin government negotiated in the daytime with representatives who, at night, let killers 'liquidate' their opponents."

The accords were voted by a large majority of the Corsican Assembly on July 28th, 2000. But the left-wing interior minister, Mr Jean-Pierre ChevΦnement, objected to provisions for teaching the Corsican language and giving the island power to adapt French laws. In a severe setback to the agreement, Mr ChevΦnement resigned on August 29th, 2000. Yesterday, he said the assassinations of Mr Rossi and Mr Santoni "have blown apart the illusions upon which the Matignon process are based".

Mr ChevΦnement believes it was a mistake to negotiate with nationalists without a prior commitment on their part to renounce violence. "These accords are dead," he said. "The government must change its path."

Last February, the Council of State questioned the constitutionality of the accords. Then President Jacques Chirac - eager to capitalise on French disillusionment with the island - postponed cabinet discussion of the draft law. The National Assembly passed a watered-down agreement in May, which went to the Senate in June. But the Senate postponed its debate until November, pending the results of a fact-finding mission.

Violence continues and nationalists are pushing for the liberation of 43 Corsican "political" prisoners. Mr Francois Hollande, head of Mr Jospin's socialist party, argued yesterday that "through this process of dialogue . . . Corsica may find a way out". But the bullet-riddled body lying across the seat of Mr Santoni's grey BMW seemed to indicate that 20 months of dialogue have not changed much on the island.