Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Macbeth, Act2 Scene 3

This morning The Times (Malta) published harrowing pictures of Maltese soldiers beating refuge seekers who were participating in a peaceful protest at the Safi Military Barracks where they are currently detained. The pictures speak for themselves: riot squad personnel surrounding a black immigrant lying helpless on the ground. The heavily armed soldiers do not look as if they are trying to lift the man from the ground. Not at all. So much so two of these soldiers are in fact pressing the protestor to the ground with their boots, while another one hits him with his baton.

I must admit it is not these pictures which intrigued me most. Riot personnel are notorious for their rough handling of human beings. The Times reported other incidents which took place at the barracks during and after the protest, and others which took place at the hospital where some of the worst beaten protestors were eventually taken for medical assistance.

Times' reporters heard soldiers urging their colleagues in the thick of the action to "smash those black's faces" and to hit them "in the head".

The protestors were holding a peaceful protest, chanting pleas for freedom while hanging non-offensive banners to the fencing closing the detention centre.

At St Luke's Hospitalsoldiers were spinning up their version to sympathetic Maltese citizens that the refuge seekers started it all.

The Times also reported that Maltese citizens at the hospital thought it was all the immigrants' fault and they should have never stepped on the sacred island.

What's worse was that the Jesuit Refugee Service was denied access to immigrants who were kept at St Luke's.

As one should expect, AI, was prompt to protest against this barbarous act with the Maltese Government. The international human rights movement has been expressing concern over the Maltese Government's (ill)treatment of refuge seekers, particularly its detention policy and the delays in processing the legal procedures related to asylum applications.

Re-reading the reports published by The Times and by AI, certain points come to the fore:

* the general feeling and reaction to these immigrants are in stark contrast with the myth of Malta as a safe haven where everyone's welcome to stay;

* not only are the armed forces ill-trained for the daily running of the detention centres, but a large number of armed forces personnel are simply blood thirsty, waiting for the right moment to vent out their frustrations on poor, unarmed and helpless refuge seekers;

* Malta denies certain basic human rights, such as the right to express one's concerns and one's pleas for freedom (the most basic of human rights);

* it strikes me as odd, very odd, that the same society which boasts of having collected so many food and medicinal items and money for the tsunami victims, embraces fascist elements who are ready to "smash the blacks' faces" and then play the victims' part.