Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1479881
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 SEPTEMBER 2022 OPINION 10 Raphael Vassallo OPINION Collective punishment for hunters? Inconceivable! AT the risk of being misinter- preted as 'unkind' (and I really do mean it in the nicest way possi- ble, promise), there are moments when Malta's hunting confrater- nity almost reminds me of Vizz- ini: the colourful Sicilian brigand from 'The Princess Bride'. Even if you've never watched that film – which would have been considered (ahem) 'incon- ceivable', until just a few years ago - you'd probably recognise the character just by his trade- mark one-liner (it's actually more of a 'one-worder', but anyway): "Inconceivable!" That, in a nutshell, is Vizz- ini's reaction to pretty much everything that happens, in the entire movie, that might in any way thwart his own nefarious, 'princess-abduction' plans. And because the movie plants itself very firmly in the terrain of 'children's fairy-tale' – where nefarious plans DO invariably get thwarted (and as a rule, in the most inconceivable of ways, too) – let's just say that he ends up re- peating that word… quite a lot. Eventually, it falls to everyone's favourite character from 'The Princess Bride' (no, not Wesley: Inigo Montoya, of 'You-Killed- My-Father, Prepare-To-Die' fame) to draw Vizzini's attention to a small, but rather awkward detail: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means…" There, what did I tell you? Just like the FKNK: which also tends to repeat the same old catch- phrase – oblivious to the expres- sion's actual meaning – with each and every single development that somehow runs counter to its own plans and expectations. What expression, I hear you ask? Well… let's see if you can spot it for yourselves, in this ran- dom selection of quotes: all lift- ed from press releases by either the FKNK, or the 'Kaccaturi San Umbertu' (KSU), over the past 17 years: Exhibit 1: "FKNK secre- tary-general Daniel Xriha claimed the [designation of Qaw- ra Point as a nature reserve] was "another form of illegal collective punishment against hunters" [which] "violates the regulation promulgated after the imposi- tion of the last collective punish- ment in April 2015, which pro- vides for the recommendation of the Ornis Committee to the minister, before the imposition of any collective punishment." - September 23, 2022 (Small hint before proceeding: the catchphrase we're looking for has already been used THREE TIMES, just in those two short sentences.) Exhibit 2: In a statement, KSU said that: "collective punishment for over 10,000 hunters because six birds have been shot illegal- ly is not only a counterproduc- tive measure, but also offensive. […] Though KSU unreservedly condemns any hunting related illegal activity, […] we consider collective punishment measures as draconian in this day and age." – September 2017 Exhibit 3: "Reacting to the gov- ernment's decision to abruptly close the Autumn season, FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione said that 'no European country imposes collective punishment, and the federation is considering taking legal steps in a bid to bring to an end this 'oppression'." – April 2015 And lastly, Exhibit 4 (which al- so has the distinction of 'killing two birds with one stone'): "The hunters' federation (FKNK) said this evening that […] closing the hunting season because of abuse would amount to unjusti- fied collective punishment. 'On the 10th of May 2007, the Malta Government imposed such a col- lective punishment by abruptly and unjustly closing the hunting season,' the federation said…" – September 2008 Yes indeed, folks: 'collective punishment'. That is the injus- tice that Maltese hunters invari- ably complain about, every single time the government takes any form of decision they consider to be 'against their own interests' – regardless whether (as in the case of both 2007 and 2008) it was actually imposed by the Europe- an Commission, and not by the Maltese government… … and, even more bizarrely, re- gardless whether or not this per- ceived 'injustice' even happened at all (in both Exhibit 2 and Ex- hibit 4, the term 'collective pun- ishment' refers only to recom- mendations to close the hunting season – made by Birdlife Malta and CABS, respectively – which were not actually implemented, at the time). But even on those rare occa- sions where any such decision WAS taken – and this week's 'designation of Qawra Point as a nature reserve' is a perfect ex- ample – it is still a classic case of: "That word you keep using? I do not think it means what you think it means…" So let's do what both FKNK and KSU should really have done 17 years ago… and look those words up in a dictionary. The precise phrasing may, of course, vary here and there… but the defini- tion will always revolve around the following points: 1) "Collective punishment is a form of SANCTION [my em- phasis] imposed on persons or a group of persons in response to a crime committed by a member of the group." 2) Such sanctions consist of "'penalties of any kind inflicted on persons or entire groups of persons, in defiance of the most elementary principles of human- ity, for acts that these persons have not committed." 3) Collective punishment is internationally recognised as a human rights violation, and also as a WAR CRIME [my emphasis, again]. Right: all that remains is to as- sess how much of that definition actually applies to any of the above complaints of 'collective punishment against hunters', over the past two decades or so. Already, it can be seen that the answer can only be… 'not very much'. For starters, because Mal- tese law clearly stipulates what the REAL sanctions/punish- ments for illegal hunting are; and as the FKNK knows only too well, they do NOT include such things as 'closing the hunting season' (as happened in 2007, 2008 and 2015); and even less, 'designating Qawra Point as a nature reserve' (as happened last Thursday). No: the real legal sanctions for violating Malta's hunting laws are limited mostly to the im- position of fines and/or (very rarely) prison sentences; as well as, occasionally, the (temporary or permanent) confiscation of hunting licences. So if we were to take the hunt- ing federation's complaint lit- erally: and assume that ALL Malta's 10,000+ hunters are 'collectively punished', each and every time that any one of their number commits a single 'hunt- ing-related offence'… … well, quite frankly, there wouldn't be any Maltese hunt- ers left out there at all by now, would there? For let's face it: all 10,000+ of them would either have been 'unjustly imprisoned and/or fined, for a crime they didn't commit'; or else, they'd have had their hunting licences 'collectively confiscated' years (if not decades) ago…. Yet we can all see, with our own two eyes, that that is very emphatically NOT what tends to happen, in practice. Quite the contrary, in fact: not only has there never – not once, in the entire (seemingly never-ending) history of Maltese hunting-re-