Corsica scenery/Williams Driving

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WILLIAMS: Hundreds of kilometres south-east of the French mainland you can still find some of the last wild landscapes in the Mediterranean.

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WILLIAMS:  A stunning spine of rugged, often snow-capped mountains, long winding ribbons of unspoiled, sun drenched coast.

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00:52

WILLIAMS:  It's no wonder they call Corsica the "Isle of Beauty".

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Cars pull up at hunting site/Men with rifles

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WILLIAMS:  Corsica's remote terrain has bred a tough, self-reliant community and in the untamed hills and valleys, hunting is a Corsican tradition.

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Men hunting boar

Some of these men have hunted together for decades, today they're chasing wild boar.

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Hunter with dog

HUNTER: In Corsica the hunt of the wild boar is a custom which has lasted for generations.

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It allows us to get together, to have a good time and to keep our friendships, because above all, the hunt is about friendship".

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Hunting boar

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WILLIAMS: Hunting is of course hit and miss and while these men will spend the morning without bagging a prize, Corsica remains a renowned destination for hunters from all over Europe.

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Hunter with dogs

But it's famous for something else as well. The island is the murder capital of Europe, with a homicide rate seven times that of mainland France.

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Hunter fires

[Hunter calls warning]

02:36

Ortoli

PAUL ORTOLI: "We can no longer count how many people have died. We don't have accurate figures for the number of murders or attempted murders. It's huge".

02:44

Ajaccio

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02:54

Ortoli in café reading newspaper

WILLIAMS: Based in the capital Ajaccio, Paul Ortoli is a crime reporter for Corsica's daily newspaper. Corsica has always had a high

03:01

Ajaccio GVs

murder rate, but Ortoli says that more and more high profile victims are being killed. A sign,

03:10

Ortoli in café

he believes, that the criminals think they're untouchable.

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Ajaccio street traffic

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03:23

Ortoli

PAUL ORTOLI: "The more violent the murder, the greater the impact. The more high-profile figures are murdered, the more we have the feeling that the mafia is powerful".

03:28

Stills. Police and crime scene/Overlay murder victims

WILLIAMS: The recent hit list includes some of the island's more powerful figures. Jean-Luc Chiappini, Mayor and National Parks President, gunned down in his car while leaving the airport.

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Dominique Domarchi, Mayor and Advisor to Corsica's Chief Executive, shot at his front door.

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Jacques Nacer, President of the South Corsican Chamber of Commerce, assassinated on a main street of Ajaccio.

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And late last year, the murder in broad daylight of Corsica's most famous lawyer, Antoine Sollacaro.

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Paul Sollacaro

PAUL SOLLACARO: "What you feel at the time is terror - something which stuns and paralyses you at the same time".

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Criminal court exterior/Paul walking to court

WILLIAMS: Like his father, Paul Sollacaro is a defence lawyer. Father and son often worked together in the criminal courts of Corsica and Southern France. Paul Sollacaro is still coming to terms with his father's brutal murder.

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Paul Sollacaro

PAUL SOLLACARO: "You're in shock and it's like living in a bad dream or rather a nightmare. To tell you the truth you can't believe it. You can't believe it".

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Ajaccio. Murder dramatisation

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05:06

WILLIAMS: Antoine Sollacaro was killed one morning last October. The lawyer was heading to work in downtown Ajaccio. As usual, he drove from his home via the local garage to buy a newspaper but on that day, a motorbike was tailing him.

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At the garage, the motorbike passenger jumped off and shot Sollacaro in the head, firing another volley to make sure. It was a professional hit.

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Ortoli in office

Crime reporter Paul Ortoli was on the scene within minutes.

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PAUL ORTOLI: "When we realised it was Antoine Sollacaro, we said to ourselves that we'd gone to another level,

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Ortoli. Super:
Paul Ortoli
Crime Reporter

because Antoine Sollacaro wasn't just a lawyer - he represented the government and the rule of law.

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Crime scene pics on computer

We wondered how far this spiral of violence would go.

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Ortoli

We had the impression that anyone could get killed at any time and anywhere".

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Crime scene

WILLIAMS: Also on the scene was Corsica's top local politician,

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Bucchini at crime scene

Dominique Bucchini.

DOMINIQUE BUCCHINI: "Unfortunately we are the most criminal region in Europe.

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Crime scene

It's appalling. It affects everyone.

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Bucchini. Super:
Dominique Bucchini
Corsican Assembly

That's enough. That's enough. We must be able to live peacefully and with each other's differences".

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Corsica scenery

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Stills. Sollacaro crime scene

WILLIAMS: The murder of Antoine Sollacaro sent shockwaves across Corsica and mainland France.

PAUL SOLLACARO: "When my father died the violence exploded

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Paul Sollacaro and Williams walk along seafront

into the face of French people in all the country, that the violence was there before, every day, and the French people realised Corsica was a very violent place".

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Seafront

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07:44

Paul Sollacaro and Williams

WILLIAMS: "So who do you think is responsible for your father's death?"

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Paul Sollacaro

PAUL SOLLACARO: "I think the situation we're in in Corsica is serious. It is complicated. We're in a mindset of assassinations, because the criminal world is re-organising the world of organised crime in Corsica".

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Ortoli in office, pins up murder map. With colleague

WILLIAMS: Many believe Antoine Sollacaro was the victim of feuding gangs.

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PAUL ORTOLI: "There were 19 murders last year and now we're up to 14 murders.

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In Ajaccio the most symbolic and high profile murders are committed - Antoine Sollacaro and Jacques Nacer... "

WILLIAMS: The theory is the criminal lawyer, through his work, had become too close to one faction.

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Ortoli. Super:
Paul Ortoli
Crime Reporter

PAUL ORTOLI: "What we can say is that Antoine Sollacaro, as a lawyer, could be thought as close to some criminals and by targeting him, a symbol was being killed and that gang was being targeted".

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Cemetery

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GABRIEL CULIOLI: "The death of Sollacaro was clearly a sign that there are currently major tensions

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Culioli

between different gangs which are emerging at the moment".

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Culioli walks dog

WILLIAMS: Gabriel Culioli is a writer and close observer of Corsica's crime scene.

GABRIEL CULIOLI: "With the end of the older generation of criminals

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Culioli. Super:
Gabriel Culioli
Writer

a younger generation is emerging who cares less about clashing with the state. To get power they're prepared to kill in a much more brutal way than their elders. That's the difference".

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Ortoli

PAUL ORTOLI: "Since 2008, organised crime has re-formed. There have been fights between rival gangs over the economic interests of business, control of drugs, control of illegal gambling, gaming rooms in Paris... They are fighting over their share of the pie".

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Beach/Cruise boats

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10:06

WILLIAMS: The biggest money spinner on Corsica now is land and property.

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WILLIAMS: In the tourist playgrounds on Corsica's coastline, the sun, the sand and island charm attract millions of visitors every year - but with the tourists come huge development pressures. Property values have exploded in the last decade and where there's money to be made, you'll find Corsica's criminal gangs.

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DOMINIQUE BUCCHINI: "So the underworld - that is, organised crime -

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Bucchini. Super:
Dominique Bucchini
Corsican Assembly

is interested in all these places and they're putting pressure so they can eventually monopolise the land, even farming land, and then develop it - with or without the agreement of a certain number of elected officials".

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Coast properties

WILLIAMS: The booming property market is also the ideal machine for laundering dirty money.

PAUL ORTOLI: "The money is invested in property and it becomes entirely legal.

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Ortoli

You can't trace it back anywhere. The money becomes legal and becomes part of Corsica's mainstream economy".

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Mayors arrive for lunch meeting

WILLIAMS: It's Corsica's mayors who are at the sharp end of the pressure - they have the power to say yes or no to developments. Today a group of officials from the island's north are gathering to talk business and swap stories. Among them is Ange-Pierre Vivoni, a mayor for 20 years. Vivoni thinks the influx of fast money has changed Corsica.

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "We went from the 20th century to the 21st without a transition.

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Vivoni. Super:
Ange-Pierre Vivoni
Mayor of Sisco

Every continent, every island in the world has had some kind of transition. It didn't happen here. We went from living as peasants to being obsessed by gain".

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Mayors at lunch meeting

WILLIAMS: With so much money at stake, being a mayor has become a dangerous job. In the past few years a number have been shot dead. Ange-Pierre Vivoni says mayors are under constant pressure to give people what they want.

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MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "The threats are pretty simple. Sometimes they want to kill you because you are clearly in the way. We annoy certain people. Then it's phone calls... you never know who's on the end of the line.

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Vivoni

But if those threats scare you, if those threats make you back down, that's when you've lost the battle".

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Mayors at lunch meeting

WILLIAMS: Over the years Mayor Vivoni has survived some close calls - including arson and bombing attempts.

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MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "They burnt down my family home. It really hurt me.

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Vivoni

I felt I was being destroyed within. I felt destroyed. I saw my childhood go up in smoke over three hours although it felt like three centuries. They blew up my cars. There was even one bomb under my car that didn't explode. If that one had exploded, I would have ended up in Italy".

13:48

Cape Corse

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14:14

Williams and Vivoni in car

WILLIAMS: What keeps Mayor Vivoni going is love for his country. For centuries his family's home has been here on Cap Corse, the northern tip of the island.

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Cap Corse GVs

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14:44

Vivoni driving

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "And what we want to do is to protect these wild landscapes, these landscapes which have remained as God made them.

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Cap Corse GVs

If they come here they'll make it into a Cote D'azur

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Vivoni driving

and if they did that it would be really catastrophic".

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Cap Corse GVs

WILLIAMS: It's largely untouched, but not for want of trying. Thanks to his strict zoning laws, horses not hotels, enjoy the sea view. Vivoni takes us to a place once earmarked for 400 villas and a huge marina development - a project he blocked.

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Vivoni shows Williams development site

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "So this Italian wanted to build here and there on 30 hectares

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and build a port down there and bring people here from Italy and elsewhere. They wanted to bring 400 or 500 people here. But I didn't want that. For me, it's much prettier like this - nicer than having a marina here and 400 villas, or mini villas".

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WILLIAMS: "Were you threatened or were you offered a bribe with this project here?"

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "He said he'd be able to ‘sort it out' with me.

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That meant we could find some sort of solution. His solution would have been to give me something or other. But regardless Ange-Pierre Vivoni wasn't prepared to make a deal".

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Vivoni in office. Opens window shutters

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16:34

WILLIAMS: Back at his office, Mayor Vivoni is concerned about some recent night-time visitors.

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Mayor with staffer

At 2 am in the morning, the Mayor's neighbour was woken by a strange noise.

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MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "... he went out and he saw in front of my window two people... camouflaged, hooded..."

WILLIAMS: The ongoing threats won't weaken Mayor Vivoni's resolve but they've taken a toll on his family. His first wife left him because of the pressure.

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Vivoni on phone

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "But she was the one who felt threatened, when she received phone calls telling her

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Vivoni

"Tonight your husband won't come back. You'll find him in the morgue." "We'll come, and you and your children will pay for what he says". So of course, a wife and her children are affected by all that. I often came back home to find them barricaded in.

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Corsica scenery

It hurts, that kind of thing... because afterwards you wonder if you were right".

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Music

17:50

Town GVs

WILLIAMS: A long and violent separatist struggle over decades has left a bitter legacy in this untamed island. But even those involved in that deadly conflict are shocked by the scale and brutality of today's many murders.

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Williams driving shots

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WILLIAMS: We're heading north to meet some brave locals who've decided to try to do something about the violence. As if on cue, we hear there's been an assassination along our route. It happened right here on the main road.

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Site of murder

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18:35

WILLIAMS:  "This is the scene of one of the latest killings here on Corsica. A 22 year old man

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Williams to camera at murder site

was found on the road here next to his car with a trauma wound to his head. Initially it was assumed he'd had a car accident, but when they did an autopsy, they found he'd actually been shot in the head, the latest in a long line of victims of Corsican violence".

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Highway/Bastia

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WILLIAMS:  The port town of Bastia is the capital of Corsica's north.

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Women walk down street and into meeting room

Here, the violence has reunited a group of veteran activists. 18 years ago women from across the island united to protest against the violence. They called themselves "Protest for Life". The recent murders have reignited their outrage.

PAULE PERSIE: "The man two days ago was 22.

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Paule. Super:
Paule Persie
Protest for Life member

He was gunned down like a rabbit. When he was on his way home in a car he was shot. Like a rabbit in a hunt. You don't get used to it. You don't get used to death. And yet, after fifteen years we still tell ourselves, we should be used to it. It never stops. There've been hundreds of deaths over the last fifteen years. And most haven't been solved".

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Stills. 1990s Protest for Life street march and lobbying

WILLIAMS: Back in the late 1990s these women organised street marches and lobbied politicians. French leaders seemed to be listening, and promised to take Corsica's problems seriously but spokeswoman Paule Persie thinks nothing has changed.

PAULE PERSIE: "Do we have to take to the street once more to say we've had enough?

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Paule

Fifteen years of saying ‘enough'. Well, that's enough! Something else is needed. We need action".

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Police and medics at murder scene

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WILLIAMS: But just two days later, a few hundred metres down the road, Corsica's violent reality strikes again.

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Williams on street to camera

"We've just been told there's been a double murder here in Bastia in the centre of the town just a short distance from our hotel. So ah,

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Crowd gathering on street

well you can see the crowd starting to gather here... there are a few police. And we believe

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Williams on street to camera

it's in this building across the road. Now we don't know the details but two people are dead. Yet another example of the violence that afflicts this island".

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Murder scene

This time it's not a gangland killing but a murder suicide. A man shot his partner with a hunting rifle and then killed himself. Almost mundane deaths in a place conditioned to the more dramatic gangland executions.

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Protest for Life women meet

In desperation, the women have gone to the very top for help. They've written to the French President demanding action - a crackdown on crime and more money for a justice system they say is failing. But Paule Persie is not hopeful.

PAULE PERSIE: "The French Government is not interested in Corsica.

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We are nothing. There are 300,000 of us.

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Paule

So that's why they leave us in the hands of the mafia. That's how you can kill in Corsica without any reaction".

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Ortoli with colleagues

WILLIAMS: Back in Ajaccio, investigations into the Sollacaro murder continue. The police have had a breakthrough.

22:37

PAUL ORTOLI: "Three people have charged and there are two protected witnesses. As we know, the inquiry is not complete".

22:47

Computer generated motorbike re-enactment

WILLIAMS: They've charged three men in connection with the motorbike used in the killing.

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Ortoli at computer

The men are connected to an Ajaccio gang.

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Ortoli

PAUL ORTOLI: "Police sources say the investigation is not over. They still don't have the group who carried out the assassination, or the boss - the one who ordered the hit on Antoine Sollacaro".

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Corsica coastline

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23:22

Paul Sollacaro walks along seafront

WILLIAMS: But this is not enough to reassure the victim's son, Paul Sollacaro.

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PAUL SOLLACARO: "When there are 20 or 30 deaths a year and the assassinations are not resolved, and justice doesn't provide a solution to these bloody affairs and families are in despair,

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and you accumulate a lot of hate and anger, in a murderous atmosphere like this, I think it can only get worse.

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Coastline

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PAUL SOLLACARO:  Sometimes I think of packing my bags and maybe going to Australia.

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Paul Sollacaro

Save up and leave to get some sun in Australia... learn how to surf. Why not?"

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Cemetery

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24:35

Vivoni lays flowers at family crypt

WILLIAMS: Mayor Vivoni is not going anywhere. His home is here where generations of his family have been buried in this crypt. He feels bound to honour a promise he made to his family when first elected.

MAYOR ANGE-PIERRE VIVONI: "Your name is Vivoni, it's ours too".

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"We have always carried it with humility and dignity".

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Vivoni

"It's your turn to continue to keep it clean." I promised both of them - and my father who is no longer with us - that I would continue to carry our name with dignity.

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Vivoni at crypt

I have chosen this path, but perhaps I didn't expect that it would be as difficult as it has been. But I haven't lost the faith yet. The flame still burns".

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Credits

Reporter: Philip Williams

Camera: Cameron Bauer

Editors: Stuart Miller, Scott Monro

 Research: Pierre Beneditti

Producer: Lisa Mcgregor

25:57