In Cargèse, thousands of people gathered this Friday to say goodbye to Yvan Colonna. Here, it is first of all the child of the country, who died at the age of 61 on Monday as a result of his attack in the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) on March 2, that we will bury. Not the man sentenced three times to life for the execution by bullet of the prefect Erignac, in February 1998 in Ajaccio. A crime he has always denied.
The coffin arrived shortly after 2 pm in this village of 1,300 inhabitants, the birthplace of the Colonna family, some 50 kilometers from Ajaccio. Among the crowd massed in silence in front of the church that rang the bell, or on foot behind the convoy, several personalities of the island: Gilles Simeoni, the autonomous president of the Executive Council, Jean-Guy Talamoni, the former pro-independence president of the Corsican Assembly, or Charles Pieri, the alleged former leader of the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), a movement that has recently threatened to resume armed struggle.
“In front of the field of olive trees that Colonna had to abandon”
After passing in front of the Colonna family home, the convoy passed “in front of the field of olive trees (which Yvan) had to abandon one day in May 1999” to try to escape his arrest, as announced by the death notice, in the Corsican language. He arrived at the Place de l’Eglise around 3:30 p.m. The coffin was then carried to the Latin Church of Cargèse. An Archimandrite, a priest capable of officiating in the Latin and Byzantine rites, Antoine Forget, known as Father Tony, led the religious ceremony which lasted until around 4:35 p.m. He will be buried in the cemetery of Cargèse.
A dense crowd had arrived before the funeral.
The body of the independence activist arrived Wednesday evening in Corsica. At least 1,500 people, authorities said, lined the road leaving the airport to pay their respects. Red lanterns were lined up on the asphalt and hundreds of Corsican flags representing a Moor’s head wearing a white headband were brandished.