Nothing to see here

Abstract

A year after the brutal murder of Lassana Cisse in a drive-by shooting in Ħal Far committed by two former AFM soldiers, the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) declared that an internal inquiry had found no signs of racism within its ranks. Two years after Cisse’s murder, which was ostensibly motivated by racial hatred given that neither of the shooters knew anything about the victim except his skin colour, the report remains a secret. To this day, Malta’s public does not know what questions were asked of 300 members of the AFM, nor the content of their answers; we just know the official narrative put forward by the Ministry for Home Affairs.The public was told that the soldiers interviewed denied any knowledge of racist sentiment among their colleagues, and that no affiliations with extremist groups bearing such ideologies were reported. The problem is that, both before and after Cisse’s murder, several other authorities that have no keen, obvious interest in exonerating themselves have reported racist incidents. [excerpts]