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Karl Schembri
Around 250 army soldiers and officers have been denied their much awaited Freedom Day medal for 18 years of service upon direct orders from the Office of the Prime Minister, just two days ahead of the ceremony.
The unexpected order reached AFM headquarters Wednesday just while the soldiers, whose names had been approved by AFM Commander Brig. Carmel Vassallo and OPM, were rehearsing the procedure for the medal awards.
High-ranking AFM sources told MaltaToday that OPM decided to scrap the ceremony at the eleventh hour after a soldier who was not going to be granted the medal because of serious charges on his army records went to Castille to complain about others who would have received it.
Soldiers present for the rehearsal in the Luqa parade ground said the officer in charge of the ceremony, Major Martin Sammut, who incidentally was one of those expecting to receive a medal, suddenly informed them that the Freedom Day ceremony would not be held and no other date of conferral had been decided.
Contacted Thursday, the Parliamentary Secretary at OPM in charge of the army, Tony Abela, refused to give the reasons for the abrupt suspension of the medal awards.
“They will be granted at a later stage,” Abela said, without elaborating.
Asked for the reasons behind his decision, Abela just said: “Because it was necessary. Period. Bye.”
But a spokesman for OPM said the medal conferment was suspended “in the light of certain pending issues from the Depasquale inquiry”, referring to the judicial inquiry launched after last year’s beating of asylum seekers detained at the Safi barracks.
The spokesman neither confirmed nor denied that a soldier had filed a complaint to OPM.
Even last year, the prime minister’s office had postponed the Freedom Day ceremony while the inquiry was still ongoing, but with the Depasquale report published in December it is unclear what issues remain still open. The inquiry had exonerated the AFM but identified just one soldier as being responsible for using excessive force.
Also, last year the AFM was informed well in advance that there would be no medals until the inquiry was closed, but this year they were informed just two days before the ceremony was supposed to be held without providing any explanations.
Soldiers who spoke to MaltaToday said the decision was yet another massive let-down for them and their peers.
“This is the second time we’re being denied our medals, but this time the prime minister’s office had already decided and approved the list, so it came as an even bigger blow to us,” said one whose name had been approved for conferment.
Among the veterans who would have received the medal this year there were some of the highest ranking officers, including the Commander of Detention Services, Lt Col Brian Gatt, the Commander of the 2nd Regiment Lt Col Harold Stivala, the army’s PRO Lt Col Mario Schembri and Lt Col Emanuel Mallia who is in charge of operations at AFM headquarters.
On Thursday, the Opposition’s spokesman for home affairs called on the prime minister to explain publicly the reasons for the suspension of the ceremony.
“He should allay the demoralisation among the soldiers by authorising the ceremony again, and explain to the soldiers why he postponed it,” Gulia said.
Another source of soldiers’ demoralisation is the bureaucratic process that has impeded new promotions from being given for five years.
The way bulk promotions are given is prompting “disgruntlement and loss of morale among AFM personnel,” the Ombudsman said in a special report on promotions in the army in 2003.
He said the AFM was “in a hell of a mess” and warned that with the promotions already back-dated by two years, the upcoming promotion exercise was set to generate yet another flood of complaints.
Thanks to irregular promotions, the AFM has the track record as the topmost government entity to generate complaints from its staff.
The last promotions exercise carried out in 2001 involved no less than 379 promotions, generated 70 complaints to the Ombudsman.
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