[WATCH] 'Sette Giugno' victims remembered

Wreath-laying ceremony commemorates the 1919 uprising

Malta is today commemorating the tragic events of 7 June 1919 when four Maltese lost their lives in an uprising against against the British administration as they demanded some form of representative government for the island.

Members of the National Feasts Committee laid wreaths on the tomb of the four victims at the Addolarata cemetery in Marsa.

The bodies of the four victims of what became known as the Sette Giugno riots, were placed there on 9 November 1924 when the Italian Fascist government celebrated the four victims as “martyrs” of the Italian risorgimento and heroes of the Italian irredentism in Malta.

The riots reflected the unsatisfactory nature of economic and political life in Malta at the time. The island had become a fortress in which a few prospered when military spending was high, wheras political development was stifled in favour of military growth.