Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has received the report into an illegal cache of explosives held by the Armed Forces of Malta in its Nadur base, a month after this newspaper broke the story.
Sources from the prime minister’s office told MaltaToday that the AFM concluded the report and forwarded it to Gonzi, as requested by the latter in the wake of queries made by this newspaper.
The prime minister had ordered AFM to conduct “a full review” of the situation at Nadur and to submit recommendations after MaltaToday exposed the potentially catastrophic conditions there.
Tons of high explosives have been stored there near manned AFM facilities, public roads, cultivated land and residences on the outskirts of Nadur, Gozo, despite clear warnings of impending catastrophe a decade ago.
In fact, MaltaToday published correspondence sent as far back as 10 years ago between the office of the prime minister, AFM and the Gozo ministry outlining the problems of the illegal store and the need to relocate the explosives and detonators to a safe place. However, the warning remained ignored since then.
Sources say the army has now proposed relocating the explosives next to the Gordan lighthouse – the same site proposed a decade ago.
As an alternative, the AFM also proposed bringing back the explosives to Mosta Fort, or upgrading the Nadur base to international standards – a highly improbably task given the extreme proximity to the army’s own shooting range there.
Despite the prime minister’s intervention, the army was still insisting that the explosives “are stored according to the standards used in the British Army in that they are segregated according to classification and compatibility”, until MaltaToday published more damning details contradicting the AFM’s stand.
In an internal memo sent in May 1998 by then Prime Minister Alfred Sant’s defence advisor Martin Scicluna to the AFM Commander, OPM was said to be “most concerned about the position (of the store) on the over-riding grounds of safety”.
In Scicluna’s own words, “the store contains at any one time some 4,000 to 5,000 kilograms of explosive and numerous detonators. The store is not purpose-built for ammunition storage (it is an ex-garage) and is not earthed against lightning strikes. It is situated in the middle of the camp. An explosion could have catastrophic consequences.”
Former Brigadier Rupert Montanaro had already complained back in May 1998 that the commitment to store civilian explosives in Gozo involved “an onus which we can well do without”.
The area is used as an army training camp where live ammunition is fired by soldiers in their exercises. The soldiers’ quarters and guard room are also situated very close to the garage.
“In our judgement, the safety aspect must be dealt with immediately,” Scicluna had added. “With small arms training and the use of pyrotechnics taking place in the area there is a risk which is not acceptable and should not be taken… the present location, slap in the middle of the living accommodation area, is unsafe and unacceptable.”
The garage itself is in a deteriorating condition and is built above an old underground live electricity cable that is prone to short circuiting.
The AFM had also found an alternative site for the explosives store at derelict building next to the Gordan Lighthouse, but the road leading to the site needed upgrading, for which AFM could not budget. But the Gozo ministry had also shot down the proposal, refusing to fork out the money for the road.
Senior AFM sources insist that as things stand, the only option that remains is to return all explosives to Mosta Fort until an alternative site is identified in Gozo.
By April 2000, AFM was reporting that the explosives dump “is in need of maintenance and refurbishment”, urging “for the necessary works to be made at the earliest in order to ensure that health and safety considerations are kept paramount”.

kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt