Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Malta
Newsline: Malta embassy officials in bribes claim still at work
Embassy officials being investigated over visa-related bribery allegations at Malta’s consulate in Tripoli continue to process entry permits, the government has confirmed. Libyan nationals have alleged that officials were demanding significant kickbacks to issue Schengen visas, with one-month visas costing up to 1,100 Libyan dinars (€673) rather than the official 120 dinars (€75) fee. Malta is one of just three EU countries issuing Schengen visas in Libya. The Foreign Ministry has opted not to suspend or transfer any of the individuals under investigation. A ministry spokesman said the new ambassador, Victor Camilleri, “is introducing a number of new internal procedures to further ensure transparency”. The spokesman would not elaborate. The Maltese consul in Tripoli, Nader Salem Rizzo, and his 10 locally-engaged staff members processed an average of 25 visas a day over the past two months. Mr Salem Rizzo declined to comment on the allegations and directed questions to the ministry. Multiple allegations of impropriety at the Tripoli consulate have also surfaced on Facebook, with several users mentioning a consulate official by name. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention, diplomats are protected from criminal prosecution and not obliged to give evidence in a court of law within receiving states. However, diplomats are not immune from the jurisdiction of their sending state and international law allows states to prosecute nationals for crimes committed abroad. This means that any Maltese diplomats found to have been involved in corruption would be liable for prosecution in Malta. The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not reply when asked whether it would waive the diplomatic immunity of any diplomats found to have been involved in soliciting bribes.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111214/local/Embassy-officials-in-bribes-claim-still-at-work.398308
Newsline: Portugal to Temporarily Close Embassy in Estonia
To ease the Eurozone debt crisis impact, Portugal has decided to temporarily close down several of its foreign embassies next year, including the one in Tallinn. The Portuguese Embassy in Helsinki will take over the functions of the office in Estonia. In addition, embassies in Kenya, Malta, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other two Baltic nations will also be temporarily closed and their jurisdiction passed on to nearest delegations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal said in a statement. With cutting back on staff numbers and merging embassies, Portugal hopes to save around 12 million euros next year.
http://news.err.ee/politics/e2a2c190-62f3-44ad-bf4d-d89936e2e897
Newsline: Malta temporarily closes London High Commission
Malta has temporarily closed its High Commission in London in view of rumours that there might be riots in the area this evening, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said. The ministry said that any Maltese nationals in the UK who may need assistance while the embassy is closed should call 07836 503 990. This number should only be used by Maltese who require assistance while in the UK, the spokesman said. The embassy will be reopened as soon as it is believed to be safe. Hundreds of people were arrested overnight after the worst rioting in decades as looting, violence and arson spread across London and to other major cities, including Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who cut his holiday in Tuscany short returning to London this morning, said Parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday to discuss the developments.
Newsline: U.S. Opens New Embassy in Malta in Security Upgrade
The United States has moved its embassy in Malta from a cramped apartment on the outskirts of the capital city Valletta to a new $125 million state-of-the art complex in a rural area in the center of the island. The move was intended for embassy officials to have bigger offices and a better working environment, but it was also deemed necessary for security purposes. An embassy press statement at the inauguration last week said that since the 1999 enactment of the Secure Embassy Construction and Counter-terrorism Act, the U.S. State Department has moved 24,000 people to safer facilities. This includes the new embassy in Ta’ Qali, built on 10 acres of land away from the main road in Floriana, just outside the gateway toValletta.
http://world.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=26264&external=1024738.proteus.fma
Commentary: Does State Department back free speech?
Elements within the State Department are attempting to silence an American diplomat who believes he was personally charged by the White House with promoting President Obama’s interfaith initiatives. The diplomat is theU.S.ambassador toMalta, Douglas Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine and former dean of the law school at Catholic University of America. He served in the Office of Legal Counsel under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush and, as a devout Catholic, for many years has been prominent in the anti-abortion movement and among those arguing for a larger role for faith-based efforts in public life. Even though he and the president disagree on abortion, Kmiec said he found in Obama someone who had “a deep faith himself and was capable of understanding the difference among people and of having empathy for that difference.” After his election, Obama appointed Kmiec asU.S.ambassador toMalta, and, at his swearing-in ceremony, a White House spokesman talked of how the president was counting on the new envoy to further his interfaith initiatives abroad. The appointment was a good fit;Maltais a socially conservative, overwhelmingly Catholic country where abortion and divorce still are illegal. Kmiec is, by all accounts, popular with both the Maltese people and their government. Last Thursday, however, the State Department’s inspector general issued a report on our embassy there that castigated Kmiec for his “outside writings,” demanding that he cease, while also reporting that his efforts in Malta had been effective and that his staff’s morale is high. According to a source familiar with the situation who asked not to be named, Kmiec first found himself at odds with the State Department bureaucracy shortly after taking office, when Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell asked him to fill in at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Malta at which Mediterranean parliamentarians were to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli delegation walked out over the Palestinians’ characterization of theGazasituation, and officials inWashingtonurged Kmiec to follow suit, or at least not to deliver a planned address. He reportedly replied that he would require instructions from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to do that, then delivered a forthright speech affirming Obama’s commitment to a two-state solution and Israeli security. Since then, Kmiec has been harassed by officials at State over his outside writing, even when it involves personal matters of faith. A memorial piece on his father’s death for the Jesuit magazineAmerica, for example, was so severely edited that it misrepresented the dead man’s views. He was prevented from writing about Ronald Reagan for the Los Angeles Times, and he has been forbidden to speak or write the words “faith-based diplomacy.” He also was forced to cancel a prestigious international conference on interfaith cooperation that he had organized. It’s a petty campaign being waged against ideas and values that desperately need a hearing. After the release of the inspector general’s report, Kmiec told The Associated Press that he was “troubled and saddened that a handful of individuals within my department inWashingtonseem to manifest a hostility to expressions of faith and efforts to promote better interfaith understanding. Our Constitution proudly protects the free exercise of religion–even for ambassadors.” Though Kmiec has not sought their intervention, the president and the secretary of state ought to deal with the bureaucrats seeking to silence a voice whose only offense is to speak in the vocabulary of our own better angels.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/042011/04182011/620048/palm?vCat=Opinion:Editorial
Newsline: US ambassador to Malta to resign
US Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec announced that he will be resigning from the post on August 15, in the wake of a critical report by the State Department. The report claimed a number of shortcomings on Mr Kmiec’s side, including spending “an inordinate amount of time” over his writings, speeches and other initiatives. “With the highest respect for your leadership and with some understanding of the difficulty and complexity of the challenges that you and Secretary Clinton face each day, I ask that you accept my resignation effective on the feast of the Assumption, 2011,” Mr Kmiec told US President Barack Obama in a letter. The ambassador also defended the quality of his work and expressed his disappointment with the damning report in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He insisted that the resignation was a strictly voluntary decision. “I know it is popular to think that all resignations are forced or motivated by some hidden reason. Anyone who has ever played cards with me knows I cannot keep the happiness of an Ace quiet anymore than I can disguise the disappointment of an unneeded or disappointing deuce. My resignation is not a product of force unless one means by force – the force of principle,” he said. Mr Kmiec will stay on to witness the opening of the new embassy building in Ta’ Qali next July.
http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=82550&newscategory=36
Newsline: Internal audit rebukes outspoken US ambassador
An internal government audit rebukes a key Catholic supporter of President Barack Obama for spending too much time writing and speaking about subjects such as abortion and his religious beliefs, and neglecting his duties as the U.S. ambassador to Malta. The report released Thursday by the State Department’s inspector general is the second critical assessment of a politically appointed top diplomat this year and illustrates the pitfalls that presidents can face when they appoint non-career diplomats to ambassadorships as a reward for their political support. The 41-page audit says Douglas Kmiec’s “outside activities have detracted from his attention to core mission goals” in the Mediterranean island nation, such as promoting maritime security and American business. It acknowledges the wide respect for Kmiec in the conservative, Roman Catholic country of Malta, but notes that his articles distract him and his embassy officials by forcing them to carefully review his writing. They’ve upset administration officials in Washington too.
http://us.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=33169&external=840478.proteus.fma
Newsline: Protests outside Maltese embassies over Jewish bones
Protesters from a Jewish group held a protest outside the Maltese embassy in Tel Aviv. Representatives of Jewish communities recently held peaceful protests in front of Malta’s embassies in Tel Aviv and Washington to urge the Maltese government to ensure there is no interference with human bones at the Jewish catacombs in Rabat. The year-long dispute concerns the discovery of what are believed to be Jewish catacombs in Rabat, and the Jewish community’s request for the place to be treated like a burial ground rather than an archaeological find. A major bone of contention was Heritage Malta’s insistence to document each and every bone found by measuring and photographing it. The Jewish community objected to this.
