ANR denounces 'home-grown terror'

Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana has strongly condemned the recent arson attacks on the homes of journalists and considers the incidents to be a clear escalation of the initial attacks a few weeks ago which involved the torching of cars in various localities.

"The situation is particularly worrying when one observes that the pattern is showing an escalation in the level of the crime itself. The general strategy as well as the tactics employed by the arsonists are becoming more and more terrorist in nature.

"This is the way the Italian Brigate Rosse and so many other terrorist organizations across Europe started off. None of them started off with outright murder campaigns and most of them were initially looked upon as mere groups of organised vandals whose actions progressively escalated gradually but surely," ANR, a right-wing organisation, said.

On Saturday morning, the house of newspaper columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia was the target of an arson attack which, she believes, was the work of "fascists and neo-Nazis". Earlier this month the front door of the home of MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan was torched. In previous weeks, arson was also committed against the Jesuit community and people connected with the Jesuit Refugee Service.

The ANR said it would be a serious error to underestimate Malta's "home-grown brand of terrorists" at this stage.

"We are all aware that our police force and secret service are doing their utmost to apprehend these criminals but this will be no easy task, neither will it be easy to prevent further attacks considering that the number of potential targets seems to be so vast.

"ANR hopes that these criminals are apprehended as soon as possible but we are not sure that this will happen at least in the short term and that is why we cannot just sit back, relax, and wait for our security forces to sort out the problem. If our home-grown terrorists will get some sort of tacit support from even a small fraction of society they will feel that their actions are actually being legitimised," it said.

The movement said this is how the initially "seemingly innocuous" Brigate Rosse thrived and expanded.

"The Brigate Rosse indeed believed that their armed struggle was a justified war against the state and an inevitable struggle of the social classes, and what fuelled their determination was that they knew that they had the moral support of literally hundreds of thousands of extreme left-wing liberal Italians. This is why all the Maltese population has to unite in an unequivocal condemnation of these acts. It is not just a question of writing a few articles in newspapers or issuing press releases of condemnation. The clear sense of disgust for these actions has to be conveyed through all sections of society, in every street, workplace and household," it said.

It said the recent attacks against journalists are an obvious attempt to undermine press freedom and thus undermine democracy.

"We have to be united in our defence of the rule of law in this country as this is the most effective way of defeating home-grown terrorism before it becomes too late," said the statement, signed by Martin Degiorgio, chief spokesman for ANR said.