Murder in the Mediterranean Our World

Tom Esslemont discovers how the French authorities are struggling

to deal with a rising tide of assassinations. They call Corsica

the Island of beauty. Every summer, the tourists flock in their

millions. The dazzling sun disguises a disturbing reality, the

highest murder rate in Europe per- capita. On his French island,

assassinations go unpunished. is a real sense of impunity here.

People can kill and get away with it. The Government blames the

Corsican Mafia but the islanders say the authorities need to do more.

If you're a citizen of Corsica, you are protected against criminality

but I do not think so. I will investigate why the French

government is unable to stop the linked to o linked to ocrime. It's an

illegal business. Today the priority is to find out.

Corsican capital, one morning last October. The best known lawyer was

driving to work. He took the same route every day. This time he was

being followed. On his way there he stopped at a petrol station to get

a newspaper. TRANSLATION:. garage owner was on duty. Gunshot

He died on the spot. He was the 50th person to be assassinated in

Corsica last year. His debt was different. He was a well-known and

He was considered one of the top 100 people in Corsica. A newly-

qualified lawyer, she has now taken up her father's Office and the

quest for justice. Did you ever think that he, such a high-profile

lawyer, would be the target of Then, one month later, there was

another high-profile murder. The victim was a shopkeeper. He was the

chairman of the local chamber of commerce. At around 7pm he was

closing his menswear shop when BSS an eight-year assassin entered and

shot him several times. The gunman disappear down the alleyway. He got

onto were motorbike. The attack was audacious, in full public view.

Another killer got away. Such high- profile more debt murders in quick

succession made the French government admit that the Corsican

Mafia may be responsible. With a population of just 300,000, the

Corsica murder rate is very high. Since 2004 there has been more than

250 assassinations and attempted killings. Last year there were at

20 assassinations across this silent. That included a triple

murder in a small village. All those a unsolved. There's a culture

here of impunity. Organised crime bosses literally get away with

Corsicans are used to morning the dead. It's a place of community.

Families and friends used polyphonic songs at funerals. This

ritual is a part of the course can solve the same as Catholicism, the

main religion. This is just a small weekday congregation here. Every

time there's an assassination, Corsicans flock in their hundreds

or thousands to the local church. They pay their respects. It's an

island steeped in tradition. The priests like these, they bury the

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A Corsicans, by nature, and This is a modern place in the world.

It's a nostalgic place. Many Corsicans field the French state is

accusing these people of being violent. This man is one of the

most celebrated singers. He is an anti-violence campaigner. When I

grow up in this kind of place, you learn 200 ways to love and respect

and to live together and to care about the trees and the beauty

which is like a poison in other places. We have a problem hearing

Corsica's. We have more criminality. Big government has a good

conscience. It's a problem with the Around 3 million tourists come to

Corsica every summer. Many French people have holiday homes here. The

rapid rate of construction appears to go unhindered by the French

state and some suspect it may be the root of the problem. You can

see what people mean when they speak about the encroachment of the

coastline. Everywhere you look there's a new holiday homes being

built as the developers capitalise on the 25% rise in property prices

in the north last year. All too often campaigners here for money

involved end up in the pockets of the criminals. One of those

campaigning for change is Dominic. He's the president of the Corsican

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How has the money tied up in The coast has seen many battles and

they lost their fight for independence in the 18th century

before the most famous son became the Emperor of France. Attempts to

colonise date well before Napoleon. The Spanish, the more was, others

who wanted a slice of this rock and the ocean but it's also known with

internal struggles as feuds between rival gangs fight for control and

the struggles have been the hardest to suppress. Violent Corsican

nationalism has been a worry for the French government. In the 1990s,

under the banner of the FLNC, they trained in the mountains. They blew

up holiday homes and the goal was independence. Things took a turn

for the worst. In 1998, top French representatives on this island and

they were shot dead. The death right here as he made his way to

the theatre sent shock waves through France and Corsica. Nobody

ever thought that they would be a target but it made the French

government realise that something After his death they splinted with

many nationalists jailed. Corsican nationalism itself did not

disappear. It feels like we are entering the real nationalist

heartland, up here in the mountain's. I keep passing signs

which had been initialled with the art or I shall -- outlawed

nationalist organisation initials. You see occasionally the signs for

French villages have blacked out with the Corsican signs being left

behind. A lot of anti-French sentiment here. Travel further, and

there is evidence of a different sort of violence. There are all the

family feuds and vendettas are still being played out. We arrived

days after the most recent attack. This is the scene of the attempted

murder the other day. You can still see the markings on that ground,

the spray paint used by police and to indicate where the cartridges

landed in the shooting. I have counted 27. The target of this

attack was the father of a man who died in a triple murder last year.

The place has become notorious for violence. In going to see if I can

speak to anyone who has seen or heard anything. What is it all

about? What is the violence all Next stop, the bakery. Didn't hear

What is it all about? What is going on? This is not the first kind of

The attempted assassination took place just a few metres down there,

not far from this bar. I'm just going to go in here and ask anyone

if they saw anything. People were I have just come out of the bar and

a woman who runs it says that she was here on the day of the attack,

the attempted assassination. She said that it is complicated and she

does not want to talk or go on camera. She says that it is a big

mess and she does not trust the police to resolve things. In

Corsica, the gun plays an important role. The weapon is part of a daily

pursuit, albeit a recreational one such as that this gun club. We're

talking big numbers. There are 30,000 registered weapons - one for

every ten people. It is believed that there are thousands of illegal

You think that people like you can make a difference? Can tackle a

problem somehow or of these few Corsicans who were ruining the

Finding proof of who is doing what is hard here. The criminals, the

assassins, disappear as quickly as the waves. Sometimes the money

comes from racketeering, are demanding cash for return for

someone's safety or silence. That is where we are right now. It is

something that Dominique the end she wanted to stop. While the mayor

of Villanova, he mapped out an area where holiday homes could not be

But many mayors around Corsica did not want to stop the building on

the land, on the coastal land, because they know that that is how

Corsicans have grown tired of the crime wave and the melancholy which

it brings. Jean-Francois Bernardini uses his music to appeal to an end

for the assassinations. He says that people deserve greater

protection from the state. We ask them to protect the citizen from

criminality. Are they really protected? All of the criminals and

the world say that criminality is going up more and more so people

are protected politically. More and more criminality will linger. I

think that in Corsica or, we can ask as a citizen of course the car

whether they are really protected from criminality. I do not think so.

The high murder rate and the accusations against the French

authorities mean extra work for their current representatives. He

has started to receive death threats. Mostly these murders again

went killings, connected with organised crime. Those murders I

unanimously rejected by the population. Is one of the problems

that for a long time, there was failure and a lack of will on the

part of the French state to tackle this kind of crime? It is true that

in 1980, 1990, the priority was the fight against terrorist acts which

were developed by nationalists who claimed independence. The mafia

developed in the shadow of terrorism. Today, it is a priority.

One of the characteristics of the strategy is a better co-ordination

between the forces of the police and other specialised forces in

controlling and are investigating. Better meaning that before it was

not good enough? Not good enough. The murders a few months ago of

Antoine Sollacaro and Jacques Nasser was a turning point. The

murder of such well-known public figures made many Corsicans demand

And can you, in your time here, put an end to the culture of impunity?

The fact that these assassins are getting away? It needs time.

long? Ten years. Ten years. And how many more deaths will take place in

ten years? We're here to avoid crimes. Murders. But some of them

are also linked to what is called vendetta. It is very difficult to

avoid this kind of crime. Four months after her father's death,

Anna-Maria Sollacaro wants answers. Can his killers have left Corsica's

She looks to the future, hoping for Adjusters. Not only for her but for

the victims of Corsica's violent The coastline of course there is

what attracts people to the island, to have holidays and make money. It