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Karl Schembri
With Queen Elizabeth II just dubbed as “one of the severest enemies of Islam” by al Qaeda and Tony Blair the chief ally of the American architect of the “war on terror”, the CHOGM summit starting Friday will be one big security operation as the biggest ever meeting of world leaders is held here.
Malta is no stranger to hosting high-level political summits, but when Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev called an official end to the Cold War here in 1989 it was from a storm-slashed Soviet cruise ship moored offshore.
On dry land next week, the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting threatens to pose a far bigger challenge to the island's police and security officers.
Apart from the Queen and Blair, Lawrence Gonzi will be hosting 37 other ruling monarchs or presidents, and a further 15 senior VIPs.
To protect them, the Armed Forces will have to make do without anti-riot backup at immigrants’ detention centres, while all police officers will be on duty together with some of their retired colleagues who have volunteered to wear the uniform again for a week.
Even the motorcycle section was beefed up, from just 23 cyclists, to accompany the 50 BMWs that will be carrying CHOGM VIPS and a further eight maximum security BMWs carrying the most security-sensitive leaders.
The summit will be confined to the same retreat venue where most dignitaries will be staying, at the cordoned Radisson Golden Sands Hotel in Ghajn Tuffieha, but the Queen’s itinerary around the islands includes the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, to her night residence at the President’s Palace in San Anton.
On Thursday she will be hosting a reception on board the HMS Illustrious, the same Royal Navy flagship that will have a six-man team from the Special Boat Service in case of terrorist incidents involving British officials, and to help guard it from suicide attacks by terrorists in speedboats.
The Duke of Edinburgh will be mainly accompanying his wife but for some exceptions. Instead of listening to boring Commonwealth speeches, he will spend Saturday morning visiting Ggantija Temples in Gozo.
Ahead of the event, senior police officers and members of the security services have been liaising with MI5, the British security service, and Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, in a bid to disrupt any planned attacks, according to Whitehall sources.
While the Home Affairs Ministry denies having direct evidence of any planned terrorist threats, security forces will remain on high alert until after the summit. Any attack during the three-day summit would represent a major coup for a terrorist organisation.
Foreign security services, including the Queen’s personal guards, will be protecting the international delegations but all logistics will remain in the hands of the Maltese police and armed forces.
“We feel the Queen herself feels safe coming here, though we never underestimate any security threats,” British High Commissioner Vincent Fean told journalists last week.
Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner Andrew Seychell said CHOGM was the police force’s biggest ever security operation: “we shall be liaising with the army, the Civil Protection Department, customs and health officials, from our control room in Floriana. Our officers will be deployed round the clock, with principal officers having already spent the past days surveying the sites where CHOGM events will be held.”
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