THE DILEMMA is well known to every Irish and British government should the administration engage an armed, underground nationalist movement in dialogue or should it attempt to crush political violence?
In the context of Corsica, this question has led to rifts between the French Interior Ministry and the office of the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, which this week seized exclusive control of Corsican matters. To show its displeasure with Mr Juppe's hardline policy, the National Front for the Liberation of Corsica Historic Channel (FLNC) staged two dozen attacks on the Mediterranean island over the past two weeks.
Earlier, on October 5th, the militants struck on the mainland, blowing up the mayor's office in Bordeaux. Mr Juppe is mayor of Bordeaux as well as prime minister, and he took this attack personally. Speaking before the French National Assembly this week, Mr Juppe said he would not let himself "be intimidated by threats, however personal, nor by the lies" of Corsican nationalists.
For the past 20 years, French governments tried to limit the damage caused by Corsican nationalists by making secret deals. The groups splintered and fought one another. They extorted money from merchants. Attacks continued and tourism (the only industry on the island of 230,000) died.
Mr Juppe decided to break with the past by refusing to deal with underground movements, talking instead to elected officials only. He devised an economic plan for a tax free zone to encourage investment.
But the militants did not want to be sidelined. From mid January this year until July, they more or less observed a truce. When they realised that Mr Juppe intended to cut them out. the bombings started again in August.
Miraculously, no one has been injured in the recent attacks, though two gendarmes were shaken when a rocket crashed into the barracks where they were sleeping. The French telephone company building in Ajaccio was destroyed and other bombs targeted the homes and cars of elected Corsican officials. French authorities fear a return to the bad days of the 1980s, when policemen and gendarmes were assassinated by the nationalists.
French officials say A Cuncolta Naziunalista is to the violent FLNC what Sinn Fein is to the IRA. The leader of A Cuncolta, Mr Francois Santoni - condemned in absentia to a year in prison for illegal possession, of weapons - outraged the prime minister's office by granting an interview in Corsica to the French regional newspaper Est Republicain on October 28th.
Mr Santoni claimed that four of Mr Juppe's closest aides held secret negotiations with his movement early this year. In a brief communique, the prime minister's office categorically denied "the false allegations of the terrorist Francois Santoni".
Mr Juppe then demanded that two officials at the Interior Ministry who had maintained contacts with Mr Santoni for the past three years be relieved of responsibility for Corsican affairs. One of the Interior officials, Mr Daniel Leandri - himself of Corsican origin - sarcastically told Lo Croix newspaper that he wished the prime minister's office good luck.
"On the Corsican file," Mr Leandri said, "you can only take a beating."
