A photo that says it all

Clearly well informed, it was as incisive as a surgeon’s blade. He could, I am sure, have cut much deeper but I suspect he knew exactly how far to go. However, I have no doubt that very soon much more will find itself in the public domain.

George Vella’s right of reply to Mercieca’s article, on the other hand, was simply incredulous. Amateurish even. It tried to ridicule the writer without answering any of Dr. Mercieca’s statements directly.

Does Vella take us all for complete idiots? Is Vella resorting to blatant lies or is he really so badly misinformed about the reality of affairs? Truly, George Vella seems very liberal – too liberal even – with the truth. As, in effect, he has been throughout the last years of turmoil in Libya.

For the sake of Malta’s stability and security, let’s go through some facts.

Despite the UN invitations to attend, our Maltese Ambassador to Libya has been absent from the UN-backed peace talks held over the last two years. Who stopped him from attending and why?

Dr George Vella strongly insists that he did interfere directly in Libya’s internal affairs two years ago. How can the Maltese people believe him when there is documentation, which shows the opposite to what Vella is stating?

When Alleanza Bidla objected to our government breaking the Constitution and international obligations by clearly taking sides between belligerents, he never denied this fact.

When Alleanza asked the government to speak to both sides in order to work for peace, the papers reported his response as being: “Is Alleanza Bidla backing a government which is allied to Islamist groups who are behind atrocities such as the one witnessed today in Paris?”

What crass hypocrisy. Now, Minister Vella finds no objection to putting his and the official government entourage’s security in the very hands of those “allies” whom he has thus far refused to recognise and whom up to some months ago, was equating them to terrorists.

Dr Vella also denied receiving a Nota Verbale asking Malta to host peace talks in Malta under the auspices of the United Nations. Alleanza has been informed differently. Add to this the many times our government has received both formal and informal requests for peace talks to be held in Malta all in line with Maltese law which obliges our government to work actively for peace. And yet, our government repeatedly gave no reply to such correspondence and acted totally undiplomatically on the matter.

There are questions regarding the rescue missions of the Maltese hostages and the government’s statements afterwards. There is the scandalous visa situation. Minister Vella should remember that Malta illegally (his words) joined military alliances and campaigns, and these are fuelling dangers on us back home, today.

It is both sad and seriously worrying to hear our minister saying “we don’t decide on BOV policies and they have their own banking policies” when the true facts are extremely different from what the minister stated.

And we all remember the photo taken just a few hours before the new (UN recognised) Libyan government was sworn in officially in Skhirat. A photo taken at Castille of all places. The very photo recording an official moment for posterity. A moment when certain Libyan factions vehemently opposed this new Libyan government. Guests of our Prime Minister and standing right next to him as they oppose the work of the United Nations.

That photo is important. Because people present on that occasion and who today still officially oppose the new Libyan government were for some reason taken to Tripoli militias-held territory (still under attack by Khafter’s forces today) and into the Tripoli controlled bases. By our government!

As Dr. Mercieca rightly stated, there were third parties not at all welcome by the Tripoli militias but who actually went along with the Maltese delegation on the official trip to/from Tripoli. This unexplained presence highly irritated the militias as well as the officials of the new Libyan government. It made them most angry with the Maltese delegation. (A delegation whose members did not even have the right visas to enter Tripoli in the first place.)

In simple terms, the normal diplomatic procedure was repeatedly not followed by Vella’s Ministry. Confirmation, if any was needed, that there were too many ‘inaccuracies’ by our government throughout. And this is very serious indeed.

The list of ‘inaccuracies’ of Vella/our government can go on. These inaccuracies lead to more questions which require satisfactory answers.

Rather than trying to ridicule Dr. Mercieca, Dr George Vella would do much better if he could tell us how to stop the embarrassment and be able to answer the latest international joke about our government’s policy on foreign affairs. On my part, I can assure Malta Independent readers that Dr Mercieca’s article is quite correct. And I fully support his article. And the right to speak the truth.

With the past errors and now these new blunders, Minister Vella is either still refusing to accept Libya’s new reality or he is totally out of touch with what is happening.

He knows that the Tobruk government’s mandate finished last year. He knows that the Tobruk government is no more. He knows that Libya’s foreign Minister Mohamed Siala does not recognise Ta’ Xbiex embassy or its personnel, yet the Maltese delegation took officials who support the Tobruk faction with them. Vella knows that other countries and the UN only recognise the new Libyan government of conciliation as the only legitimate Libyan government yet Malta’s official Foreign Ministry website shows Ta’ Xbiex (Tobruk) as the official embassy!

He knows that Balzan is the only official Libyan Embassy in Malta and (until the new Ambassador is announced) that the official caretaker is Mr Hussein Musrati.

Yet he does not want to be politically and diplomatically correct with Libya. He is either totally incompetent or up to tricks that no one representing us should be allowed to get away with. Sincerely, I do not know which one of the above scenarios is worse.

He refuses to take up the challenge to debate seriously on his total mismanagement in this regard preferring to defend himself from a safe distance. I ask him again. Will you accept our invitation to face some serious questions on our political programme Exodus and debate most seriously in this regard? Or will he choose to stick to reading out previously prepared scripts at carefully orchestrated press releases?