President George Abela and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi this morning laid flowers on the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa, marking the 32st anniversary of the closure of the British military base.

Ironically, on that day, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had been Malta’s sole foreign guest and had said that the fact that Libya was directly celebrating with Malta was proof “of a common future”.

In a twist of fate, the Libyan leader was now at war in his own country and with the World with western powers keeping up the pressure to force him out.

On March 31, 1979 Col. Gaddafi had told Malta that the interests of European countries were not the same as those of Malta and he had warned the country to never again “be deceived by colonialism”.

He had promised that Libya would stand with Malta “through your life span”.

Malta, he had said, had taken the first step in its interests by closing the British base, it now had to remain neutral.

But although still neutral 32 years to the day, Malta was now a member of the European Union and some days ago gave its consent to sanctions against the Gaddafi regime.

At today’s ceremony, Dr Abela inspected an AFM Guard of Honour before walking up the monument to lay the flowers at the foot of figures representing the lowering of the Union Jack for the last time by a British sailor and its replacement by a Maltese flag hoisted by a worker.

Freedom Day events continue today with a regatta in Grand Harbour.