French public lose patience with government handling of Corsica

No wonder the French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, has so little success in bringing peace to the Mediterranean island of Corsica, despite last year's autonomy agreement. French judges responsible for investigating and prosecuting acts of violence on the island have, it turns out, spent as much time fighting each other as separatist extremists.

In doing so, they have become de facto allies of rival nationalist factions.

Disputes between the "anti-terrorist" unit and the prosecutor's office at the Paris Palais de Justice are probably the most dangerous example of the left-right polarisation that runs through the French justice system.

The degree of conflict has come to light since August 24th, when the "anti-terrorist" judge Mr Gilbert Thiel filed a complaint against the head of the "anti-terrorism" section of the prosecutor's office, Mr Michel Debacq.

Mr Thiel claimed that a search of the Paris apartment of the mistress of the assassinated nationalist Mr Francois Santoni, carried out by Mr Debacq and three policemen, violated procedure.

Mr Debacq's offence, Mr Thiel claimed, was to have the report drafted by a policeman rather than himself. But Mr Debacq signed the report, and the Paris prosecutor, Mr Jean-Pierre Dintilhac, supports him.

It may sound petty, but the underlying reality is that Mr Thiel and his three fellow investigating magistrates in the "anti-terrorist" section are known to be close to the former right-wing interior ministers Mr Charles Pasqua and Mr Jean-Louis DebrΘ. Mr Debacq and Mr Dintilhac, on the other hand, have strong socialist connections; Mr Debacq was a cabinet advisor to the last two socialist justice ministers, and Mr Dintilhac headed the cabinet of an earlier socialist justice minister in 1990 and 1991. He became famous last month for unsuccessfully demanding that President Jacques Chirac be questioned in a financial scandal.

The right-wing judges are in league with the deputy director of the judiciary police, Mr Roger Marion - whose relations with the French domestic intelligence service are widely reported to be exΘcrables. Mr Marion is also on very bad terms with magistrates on the island, who accuse him of ignoring the separatists' involvement in organised crime and being chummy with certain extremists on the pretext of infiltrating the milieu.

The right-wingers accuse their colleagues on the left of deliberately allowing Mr Yvan Colonna, the alleged killer of the prefect in Corsica, Mr Claude Erignac, to go free. If Mr Colonna were arrested, they reason, it could be the final blow to Mr Jospin's "Matignon process". Left-leaning officials suspect the right of using their investigations to sabotage the Matignon agreement, and of being soft on Mr Santoni's "Armata Corsa" because the group is the principal opponent to the accords. Armata Corsa has murdered three people and carried out 20 bombings in two years.

With the French justice system in a shambles, it is not surprising that so few crimes are ever resolved in Corsica - or that the French public are losing patience. An opinion poll to be published by Paris Match today shows that while 17 per cent of Corsicans would vote for independence if a referendum were held, 43 per cent of continental French people would like to give independence to the island.