"#Iwas 6 approximately. He was my cousin. He had 14 " : started in the United States on Twitter, the #Iwas movement to denounce sexual violence has taken on a particular scale in Corsica, land of" omerta ", even if it has so far led to little complaints.
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“#Iwas it happened from 4 to 8-10 years. He was my own father and only out of sodomy. He told me that it was normal, that all dads did this to their daughters, ” writes on June 7, Mother's Day, Stella Pasquini on Twitter. Her incestuous father was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2019. “About #Iwas 6. He was my cousin. He was 14. I woke up at night. He was not asleep. And asked me to help him finish what he was doing, ” wrote Culomba Sicurani two days earlier, one of the first in Corsica to take over this movement.
Today settled in Dublin, Culomba Sicurani, 25, explains to AFP the difficulty of telling these dramas: “In Corsica, it's small, we all know each other. We dare not speak because the rapist is the friend, the cousin ”. "#Iwas is an electric shock, no one expected it," she said, however, not wanting to file a complaint. “On the island, silence comes from shame and fear of reprisals. One does not inform his parents for fear that his father will kill the author, " explains to AFP Laetitia Maroccu, president of the association Done and Surelle, and in charge in Ajaccio of the gender equality delegation.
"Omerta"
"Omerta is not a myth on the island" on these questions of sexual violence "committed in the majority of cases by relatives" , confirms to AFP a police officer long familiar with these files. Without a trial, "the victims are not recognized as such". But since the beginning of June, testimonies have been pouring in on the #IwasCorsica page, an island version of #Iwas born in the United States on June 1. Girls, of course, but also boys: incest, rape, sexual assault, touching.
And in Corsica, the movement was also declined in the form of demonstrations, in the streets of Bastia on June 21 and those of Ajaccio on July 5 and obtained the support in particular of the mayors of Ajaccio, Bastia and Bonifacio, or Marlène Schiappa, former Secretary of State for Gender Equality. " Victims we believe you, rapists we see you", "No it's no" , "Police, justice, classification without follow-up, you are accomplices" , the messages are strong. To give themselves courage, the hundreds of demonstrators, mainly young women, sometimes minors, applaud and chant in rhythm "We are strong, we are proud, and feminists and radical and angry!"
Then pierce in the procession cries of pain: "I was 9 years old and it was my father" , "I was 16 years old" , "She was 3 years old". Revelations punctuated by sobs that female solidarity dries up. Sometimes rage prevails and slogans like "Everyone hates the police" , "Justice is a whore" or "Death to pigs" come out . The prefect, who received a delegation, "gave us his email and his mobile number so that we can send him the complaints that are problematic," Laetitia Maroccu and Anaïs Mattei, one of the organizers, told AFP. demonstrations, regretting too many unsuccessful rankings.
Complaints
Anaïs Mattei, 22, said that she had gathered "the testimony of 15 people ready to file a complaint" who were to go together to the Bastia police station on Tuesday. Contacted by AFP on Tuesday evening, the prosecutor of the Republic of Bastia Caroline Tharot indicated that a "document of about fifteen pages entitled #Iwas testimonies" and including "14 testimonies" had been deposited at the police station of Bastia by two young girls of the #Iwas movement but that these were not complaints. Each must come and reveal on the official report to the police or gendarmerie the facts denounced, specifying their domicile, the date of the facts and the place of commission of the facts, "so as to be able to open an investigation," added Caroline. Tharot, specifying that they could choose whether or not to file a complaint.
The magistrate clarified that from testimony 10, a hat indicated "classified without continuation or in progress" and that two testimonies related facts that would have happened in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. For the moment, only one "complaint for a rape which would have been committed last summer in Haute-Corse" has been registered, recalled the prosecutor. The complainant, a young woman who was among the creators of a private group on Twitter where the names of potential attackers were shared, had previously previously filed a complaint for another rape, "a complaint dismissed in 2018 and a ranking that she had not challenged, " said Caroline Tharot.
Another group leader, heard by gendarmes from Borgo (Haute-Corse), "indicated that she had been raped in Aix-en-Provence two years ago and did not wish to file a complaint," added the magistrate, inviting "all the young girls to go and reveal to the judicial authority the facts of which they claim to be victims so that investigations can be opened". If complaints from victims remain rare, "48 libel complaints have been filed in Haute-Corse following the publication of dozens of names of potential sexual assailants or rapists", shared by private messages on social networks, said the prosecutor. A 49th was also filed in Corse-du-Sud.
