A judge has found that the Armed Forces of Malta should carry the bulk of the blame for the tragic death of a teenage soldier during a botched training exercise 12 years ago. But who is the army, as the victim’s uncle rightly asked on the day the court awarded nearly €180,000 in compensation to Matthew Psaila’s family.
That it had to take so long for the truth to surface is already sad but it gets even grimmer when one realises this was the fourth review of the tragedy.
For the record, the army had conducted an internal inquiry, the government had ordered an independent inquiry and the routine magisterial inquiry kicked in automatically.
A lieutenant and a bombardier who were supervising the ill-fated training exercise had been cleared of the soldier’s involuntary homicide on grounds that they could not be held responsible for what happened.
The independent inquiry also concluded that no individual could be blamed, attributing it to “misadventure”. Yet, that same inquiry and, more so, the one conducted by the magistrate, indicated blatant shortcomings that contributed to Psaila’s drowning, hypothermia and death.
The question, therefore, remains: who was responsible for the tragedy?
Madam Justice Joanne Vella Cuschieri concluded that the AFM shouldered 80 per cent of the blame. The balance was attributed to the victim on grounds he had not indicated he was unable to swim, although that remains a contentious point till this very day.
When one reads the judgment one immediately realises that what the whole thing boiled down to was utter disregard by the top brass for health and safety issues.
The judge quotes an officer saying that when he brought up the matter before the incident, the commander had unequivocally told him health and safety was not a priority. As an aside, many building contractors would surely agree with that.
The man in command of the armed forces at the time, Carmel Vassallo, later declared that the exercise during which Psaila died had long been carried out. While expressing anguish, he added: “The army is obliged not to put a soldier in a situation he is not trained for but, much as you can plan for different eventualities, the job can never be 100 per cent risk-free.”
The conclusions reached by the judge seem to indicate that, in this case, the army under his command did not “plan for different eventualities”. She found that the AFM failed to set standard operation procedures and ad hoc guidelines with regard to training means and methods or with regard to safety procedures and the better provision of safety equipment in both quantity and quality.
A worse indictment of the Armed Forces of Malta and its leadership there can hardly be.
It gets even more damning when Madam Justice Vella Cuschieri says it was only by the grace of God that the exercise held on Friday, February 13, 2009. did not result in more injuries and deaths due to the army’s shortcomings.
A forensic medicine expert commissioned by the magisterial inquiry concluded that the exercise conducted in line with the orders issued by the military authorities put the lives of 29 people in manifest danger.
So this was no “misadventure”. It was the misfortune of a young soldier who was victim of a tragedy waiting to happen.
Who, within the army, will be shouldering responsibility? Hopefully, procedures have improved but society needs to put its mind at rest.
At least, Psaila would not have died in vain.