If allied forces need to use Malta to carry out the UN-mandated military action against Libya, “we should accept”, former President Eddie Fenech Adami said yesterday.
He said Malta’s Constitution allowed the island to take full part in action so long as it was sanctioned by the UN’s Security Council, as is the case with Libya.
However, he did not criticise the government’s cautious approach so far, where allied forces have been permitted to fly through Malta’s airspace but military support is not being offered.
“Yes, I have no doubt that Malta is doing enough. I don’t think (the allied forces) realistically need their planes to take off from here instead of Italy... But if the request is made with the blessing of the UN, according to our Constitution, we should accept.”
Malta’s approach was correct but the neutrality clauses in the Constitution did not prevent it from taking on a larger role, he said. “I think if what is happening is done with the blessing of the Security Council we are...I would not say obliged... but free to accept that decision. We should not go against the concrete resolutions of the UN.”
He was speaking to The Times after a political discussion in Tarxien, where he and former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici were interviewed by former The Sunday Times editor Laurence Grech.
Last week, MEP Simon Busuttil took a similar stand to Dr Fenech Adami’s, saying the Constitution did not preclude Malta from offering its facilities to support military assets in line with the UN resolution. On the other hand, former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici insisted it would be unconstitutional to do so, even going so far as to say military jets should not be allowed to cross Malta’s airspace.
Dr Fenech Adami said Malta’s relationship with Libya was “not ordinary” and although Nationalist governments always “correctly” kept a neighbourly and critical relationship, Labour governments had gone a step further.
“Dom Mintoff’s government found refuge in Gaddafi’s government, during the 1972 crisis with the British, where the Libyans even helped financially,” Dr Fenech Adami said.
At that time, Libyans were “helping” the Maltese air traffic control workers, and during a spike in oil prices, Libya began selling fuel to Malta at “Libyan consumer market prices”, even though Mr Mintoff hid this from the Maltese and continued charging the usual prices.
Meanwhile, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he had reluctantly accepted Malta’s non-alignment clauses but also that it would be good for Malta to do all it could to stay out of wars, “because our country has seen too much war”.
He said people his age remember that Malta had a very tough time during World War II. “We had bombs falling on us and we were starving. It was a very ugly experience. Although we too disagreed with Fascism and Nazism, we suffered more than we should have because we were a British base.”
Therefore, he said, our neutrality clause had since “served us well”, even if it was sometimes used “as an excuse”.
“In today’s circumstances, it means that we can tell our friends: ‘Listen, leave us out of it this time.’ And I think this is not a bad thing for our country.”
“Does this mean staying out of a battle between good and evil? In such a circumstance we should always choose ‘good’. But we should see what we will lose if we are used for war and what we will gain....for the time being, I don’t think it is in our interest to get involved.”