The cold-blooded murder of Lassane Cisse Souleymane, a father of three, is indeed a sad day for Malta – Professor Carmen Sammut
7822 Mins Read
This is a sad day for Malta and for those men and women in the Armed Forces who exercise their role with professionalism.
This day is also a wake-up call.
The murder of Lassane Cisse Souleymane, a father of three, shocked the nation because it was cold-blooded and because two other immigrants were also targets of the same attack. We are now shocked because the perpetrators (or rather ‘the accused’) are within the Corps that is supposed to defend us.
Sadly, this was not the first time that soldiers were charged with the murder of an immigrant. Three soldiers were charged in connection with the involuntary murder of a Malian immigrant in 2012 (he was badly beaten). This time the attack was different. It was intentional and systematic to an extent that three months earlier the soldiers were allegedly involved in a hit-and-run of an immigrant from Chad.
It is truly sad if some of those same individuals who are assigned to defend national interest, were the perpetrators of a racist murder instigated by the hate narrative. Lest we forget, the Mission Statement of the Armed Forces is “to protect the territorial integrity of the Republic of Malta [and] the security of its citizens…” (Strategy 2016-26).
But National Security is also threatened from within, by people who incite racial hatred and xenophobia. While interviewing a mother of inter-racial Maltese kids, whom I had interviewed for one of my studies, I was told:
“We must remember we now have children of colour in our classes, including multiracial Maltese kids. We have to protect human beings, and be careful when throwing stones at each other, for they might bounce straight into our face.
It is a real eye-opener. This sentence keeps ringing in my head whenever national security & racism come under the public spotlight.
The warning signs are clear. Those who have been paying lip-service to racial and ethnic hatred for decades, may now feel invigorated by the rise of the Far-Right in Europe. Wherever and whenever the far-right raised its head, it practices what it preaches. And let us remember that the targets of their profound hatred and fear-mongering are not merely sub-Saharan immigrants.
