Fausto Biloslavo, a writer at the Italian newspaper, Il Giornale, said that the Italian military in Libya is blocked by the Libyans. They are making money on visas for the new unit, which was already supposed to replace the Italian men.
Biloslavo added, “there is a proposal for return flights in February, but only one proposal. My partner was to return with the other soldiers to Italy on January 5th. Then, there will be Islamic holidays in March and the risk is that everything will stop.”
The Il Giornale writer noted, “in Libya, we have 400 men, 142 land vehicles and two air vehicles. About 250-300 are in Misrata with a field hospital, but they cannot return, despite the end of their mission period. The Libyans also played a similar trick on us last year and only three months late the troops were able to take over.”
“I am the partner of a soldier employed in Libya. The quota change was scheduled for January, but currently, the bureaucracy machine operates with disarming slowness. Yes, we are blackmailed by a nation to which Italy should give support on several fronts. The Libyan visa blackmail is repeated.”
The Il Giornale reporter stated that, “the Miasit mission provides health care, support to the Libyan armed forces and support for the fight against illegal immigration with a navy ship at the Abu Sitta naval base in Tripoli.”
According to the Il Giornale article, the “blackmail” of visas is only the tip of the iceberg of “considerable critical issues due to the lack of collaboration of the Libyan authorities.” The confirmation comes from a question to the government of the Senator of the Brothers of Italy, Patrizio La Pietra, presented on the 11th of January.
La Pietra added that, “currently it would seem that the scheduled departures for the return to the homeland of the current contingent scheduled for the month of January are suffering further delays as the flight plans of January 5th and 11th have been canceled.”
La Pietra said that the tug-of-war is dictated by some power groups in Misrata close to the Turks, who do not look favorably on the Italians. The Libyans also entered the Italian base photographing the vehicles and the supplies. They then posted the images on social media.
Last September, the new Commander of the Bilateral Assistance and Support Mission in Libya (Miasit), Admiral Placido Torresi, was forced to take a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Libya instead of an Italian military plane, according to La Pietra.
The question denounces a worrying list of disagreements, “the oxygen production machinery necessary for the proper functioning of the operating rooms of the field hospital would appear to have been blocked for a long time in the port of Misrata.” Even the “mentoring” of the Libyan forces would be practically nil “except for a few elements in Tripoli, but with minimal activities.”
He continued that, “the Libyan customs authorities have blocked several containers with “supply material destined for our military contingent, creating considerable inconvenience.” Provisions that would then not be viable for use. Senator La Pietra asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence if they are aware that “during the external missions of our doctors it would appear that the escort soldiers cannot wear the Italian uniform, much less carry weapons.”
“It is a problem that last year also concerned the Commander’s escort in Tripoli. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the military attaché at the Italian Embassy cannot renew the contract for local collaborators, as in the rest of the world, due to administrative bureaucratic complications,” he noted.
La Pietra also explained that the Ministry had undertaken to guarantee continuity at least in the places at risk where we have contingents such as Libya, Lebanon and Iraq, but everything is still firm and anchored in absurd competitions for external agencies, especially dangerous from the point of view of security. “In the meantime, our military in Libya are no longer welcome, at least for the friends of the Turks.”