Targeting the heritage

The recent spate of criminal vandalism against our national heritage reminds me of similar incidents that occurred some time ago when the hunting issue was hot and at the top of the political agenda.

Whenever the government has tried to revise hunting laws to a more civilised level, we have always woken up to random incidents or threats targeting our historical monuments. In 1991, "Namur jew intajjru" (our hobby or we shall blow the place up) was prominently written near the 5,000-year-old Hagar Qim.

On Good Friday of 2001, again when hunting and trapping were frequent topics in the media, some 60 megalithic stones were damaged at Mnajdra, the worst criminal act ever inflicted on Maltese heritage. Mnajdra is a World Heritage Site and probably the oldest free-standing building on earth.

The list of vandalised historical monuments is not short. Some are even more directly linked to hunters, such as the damage done in 1994 by slogans in favour of hunting and against Stanley Zammit, the environment minister at the time, sprayed all over the temple of Borg in-Nadur in Birzebbuga.

This spring is being dubbed as one of the last springs during which hunting is going to be allowed in Malta. Last month, we had inspectors from the European Commission over to check out our shortcomings with regard to hunting. A few days ago we had a high profile press conference of the Hunting and Trapping Federation that spelled out the reality that hunting and trapping have to face after 2007. Hot heads get even hotter.