Cachia Caruana grilling | PM Gonzi denounces 'treason' accusations

Speaker Michael Frendo has ruled that the decision on the procedure to be followed by the Parliamentary European and Foreign Affairs committee should be taken within the committee itself. However, Frendo stressed that Malta's permanent representative to the European Union, Richard Cachia Caruana should appear before 18 June, when the Opposition motion calling for his resignation should be voted by Parliament.

Frendo said that the only restrictions imposed by the House Business committee, were that Cachia Caruana had to be given ample opportunity to be heard and to defend himself, before the final vote on the motion on 18 June, unless the two sides agree otherwise. 

The Speaker urged both sides to reach an agreement within the Committee, which will be reconvened later on this evening.

Soon after the Speaker gave his ruling, the committee reconvened and the committee's chairperson Francis Zammit Dimech proposed that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi should be the first to give evidence before the committee and Cachia Caruana will be the second witness.

Former Labour foreign minister, George Vella agreed to this: "We respect the ruling of the Speaker and I confirm that informal discussions took place about the procedure. The Opposition agrees that the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will be the first to appear before the committee and Cachia Caruana will follow."

Vella also expressed his desire to be given time to explain the motivations behind the motion to which the committee unanimously agreed.

In his explanation, Vella said that Cachia Caruana's sole intention was to avoid having the decision to reactivate the Partnership for Peace membership discussed in Parliament because as Cachia Caruana himself was quoted in the embassy cables published by Wikileak, "it is a 50/50 decision."

Vella stressed that Cachia Caruana should have only acted according to the guidance given by the Maltese Parliament and not from the Nato headquarters or the US State department. He added that the premises on which the motion is based are incorrect and so is the conclusion reached by the Opposition.

After a short suspension of the meeting, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was convened and he appeared before the committee to give his evidence.  After taking an oath, Lawrence Gonzi read out a statement which was circulated to all committee members and to the press.

Just as the Prime Minister started reading his evidence, Nationalist MP Franco  - who has been highly critical of Cachia Caruana - took a seat in the committee room and was overheard asking Nationalist whip David Agius whether he can intervene and make any questions to the Prime Minister.

In his 18-page evidence, Gonzi described the motion as "grave" and added that "if the implications were to be true they would attack the heart of the government, which I have had the honour to lead since 2004."

On the Wikileaks cable, Gonzi said that it is insulting for anyone to take a unilateral report by a foreigner as the truth and ignore the government's version of events. Gonzi repeatedly referred to the Wikileaks document as a "biċċa cable."

Gonzi explained that he "can never accept to be accused of treason" and said that "I have the duty to counter these unjust accusations which are factually ethically and procedurally unfair."

The Prime Minister said that the Wikileaks cable is being misinterpreted and added "without impinging on anyone's integrity, the only source of these allegations is an American diplomat, who was ostensibly feeding suggestions and obviously acting in his own country's best interests."

He went on to explain in detail the events which led to the re-activation of Malta's membership in the Partnership for Peace ,  insisting that this matter was never required to be discussed in Parliament and that  Caruana acted on the instructions of government. Gonzi repeatedly stated that the accusations carried by the Opposition's motion were "absolutely false."

At the end of the lengthy evidence, Gonzi explained that whenever a person is accused of any wrongdoing, Parliament must either be sustained or otherwise the "bona fide" explanation should be accepted. He added that if the accusations are not proved correct they must then be dropped.

"All documents and the evidence that will be presented to the committee show that the Permanent Representative was acting in the country's best interest on my own and the government's instructions."

Gonzi added that the accusations which also concern him are false and said that he expects the Opposition to reconsider its position according to Parliamentary practices. "Naturally, without wanting to be misunderstood, I have no problem to declare that I am not opposed to the continuation of the debate and the scrutiny within the committee."      

Reading from the prepared document, Gonzi cited the minutes from the November 2004 meetings which Gonzi said showed that the Opposition's conclusions that Cachia Carauna had been working to re-activate Malta's Partnership for Peace membership behind parliament's back and that he had betrayed Malta's interests were false.

Gonzi said the notes from the 2004 meetings showed that Malta never intended to join the Partnership for Peace programme at the time and Cachia Caruana was following government's instructions.

Asked by George Vella why he only gave a detailed explanation of events now and not in 2008, Gonzi said that back then there was no need to give an explanation and repeated that the contents of the Wikileaks cable were of no concern to the government but it was the Opposition that had interpreted the cable incorrectly.

Malta joined the Partnership for Peace programme in 1995, however the Labour Party withdrew Malta's membership upon its election in 1996. Malta decided to reactivate its membership in March 2008 just days after the re-election of the Nationalist Party in government.

The re-activation request was accepted by Nato at a summit in Bucharest in 2008. The Partnership for Peace programme is aimed at creating trust between Nato and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union. It currently has 22 states as members.

While quizzing the Prime Minister, Vella noted that 2008 events "fuelled our suspicions about 2004."

On hearing this, Gonzi explained that in 2004, the government was trying to come up with a solution that would respect the position taken by the Labour government in 1996, while safeguarding Malta's security interests.

The Prime Minister added that the fact that prior to the 2008 re-activation, the government was trying to come up with different solutions and that this cannot be deemed as an act of betrayal. "You cannot level charges of treason at us for doing everything in our powers to get Malta out of a problematic situation that was affecting our country's security interests."

He noted that there is a huge difference between claims of not consulting Parliament and accusations of treason.

As the hearing came to an end just after 9pm, the committee chairperson Francis Zammit Dimech adjourned the committee to Monday 21 May when the Prime Minister will reappear to answer more questions by the committee. 

Before Gonzi's testimony, foreign minister Tonio Borg said the accusations brought forward by the Opposition are "very serious" and they deserve to debated and dissected by Parliament.  

On Tuesday, the European and Foreign Affairs committee saw both sides of the House involved in a heated debate over the Opposition's motion calling for the resignation of  Richard Cachia Caruana resignation, following his 'behind-the-scenes' role in bringing Malta into Nato's Partnership for Peace in 2008 and bypassing the parliamentary procedure for this decision.

The meeting was suspended to Wednesday after the Opposition asked for a ruling by Speaker of the House Michael Frendo. The Opposition whip, Joe Mizzi intervened after the two sides could not come to an agreement on how the committee should debate the Opposition's motion. While the government insisted that a vote on how the hearing of evidence will take place should be taken in the committee, however the Opposition held that the vote should be taken in the main Chamber.

During yesterday's meeting, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg informed the committee that the government side wants to invite a list of 21 witnesses to give evidence before the committee. The list includes Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, former Nato Secretary General Javier Solana and two former US ambassadors to Malta.

Borg insisted that the prime minister should be the first to give evidence, in order to explain the context of the PfP membership and also to explain how Malta's representatives used to be asked to leave meetings when Nato documents were discussed.

However the Opposition insisted that Cachia Caruana should be the first to give evidence. While the Opposition did not oppose the list of witnesses, former Labour foreign minister George Vella pointed out that Cachia Caruana should be the first to appear before the committee because the motion is calling for his resignation. He added that other witnesses shall give evidence "in due time".

Labour has also proposed European Commissioner John Dalli, who was foreign minister between 2004 and 2005, to testify on the Opposition's motion. The foreign affairs committee chairman accepted this witness.