This motto dear to the Corsicans is plastered in many houses on the Isle of Beauty: “I say nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing.” Patrick Buchwalder verified this the hard way.
He, the restless Aries who was looking for a quiet corner to recover from his emotions of June 23, 1974, believed that by landing in Corsica a few months after the historic “yes”, he would quickly be admitted by local separatists. His past as a Jura activist could only serve him well, he thought.
On site, the resident of Porrentruy quickly swallowed his pastis wrong. “I tried to have contact with people involved in the struggle for independence. I showed up in a bar frequented by members of the National Liberation Front of Corsica, the famous FLNC. I quickly disenchanted. Through my questions, I aroused suspicion. For two weeks, dialogue was impossible.”
The trigger? Two deaths!
This scenario repeated itself for years. Because between Patrick Buchwalder and Corsica, a love was born. “I have always been attracted by the history of peoples wishing to obtain their independence. But with Corsica, it was really special. From my first stay, I had the impression of having already been on the “island, that the place, magnificent, was not unknown to me.”
Alone, with family, Ajoulot has lined up trips to the Isle of Beauty. “The trigger happened in the early 1990s, in L’Île-Rousse. Sitting on a terrace, I saw two men suspected of belonging to the FLNC being shot dead on the terrace of the café next door. I wanted to find out more. I bought a copy of the activist weekly URibombu. I spotted a name, that of Jean-Michel Rossi. He had been arrested in this context. of the assassination which had taken place before my eyes. I wrote to him in prison, recounting my journey as a Jura separatist.
Swiss
