The interview with former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (The Sunday Times, January 25) should give the shivers to any decent citizen who lived in those times.

No-one can claim objectivity but there still is evidence to show what really occurred. The frame-up of Pietru Paul Busuttil and the killing of Nardu Debono, the shooting at the Rabat mass meeting, the frame-up of Anthony Mifsud, the ravaging of the Fenech Adami residence and the burning of The Times (these were heinous crimes as much as the killing of Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana) were the work of a corrupt and unscrupulous regime.

This was not the work of the Nationalist Party but elements of the Labour Party who were protected by the regime. It demonstrated the philosophy of a party that all means were justified to promote the Labour government's policies.

If Dr Mifsud Bonnici was not aware of this it only means that he was a weak Prime Minister and the job did not suit him.

As to the secret agreement he referred to, namely to make Dom Mintoff President, this proposal was discussed in a special general council of the Nationalist Party and most members felt that the fact that Mintoff might have agreed to become President with the power to control the police was unacceptable, especially in view of the reality of abuse of power that our nation was experiencing.

While the interview made very interesting reading, it only demonstrates how we mortals are unable to shake ourselves free of past mistakes. Its contents only convince me that with such exponents (even if somewhat retired), it would be a great mistake to trust the Labour Party that seems unable to make a break with its past by accepting facts and somehow atone for them.