Recently, the government announced that it will be deploying Armed Forces of Malta (hereafter 'AFM') personnel to patrol the streets of Swieqi for the purpose of law enforcement. As expected, the Swieqi Residents Association and Swieqi Local Council have welcomed this initiative. Other organisations have been critical of this deployment. Personally, I have no qualms on this deployment. I consider this to be an ordinary civilian function performed by the AFM in terms of law.

The Armed Forces of Malta Act, Chapter 220 of the Laws of Malta, has a provision that allows the minister responsible for defence to make regulations to assign civilian duties to the AFM. According to article 4(3) of the 1970 enactment: 'It shall be lawful for the President of Malta by order to empower any member of the force to exercise, in addition to any functions, powers and duties he may have as a member of the force, all or any one or more of the functions, powers and duties as are by law vested in a member of the Malta Police Force and in an officer of the Customs'.

In terms of the Assignment of Powers to Armed Forces of Malta Order, Subsidiary Legislation 220.06, in 'the performance of patrol, guard or security duties or of duties in connection with criminal offences, assigned to him by a Commander of the Armed Forces of Malta, whether such duties are performed on land, sea or air, a member of the Armed Forces of Malta shall be empowered to exercise all such functions, powers and duties as are by law vested in an officer of the Customs or in a member of the Malta Police Force'. However, when 'such functions, powers and duties as are by law reserved to officers holding the rank not below that of Inspector of Police shall only be exercisable by a member who holds a commission in the Armed Forces of Malta'.

The Order further provides that: 'During such time as a man of the Armed Forces of Malta on a twelve or fourteen or eighteen month engagement is detailed to perform duties with the Malta Police Force, such man shall be empowered to exercise all such functions, powers and duties as are by law vested in a member of the Malta Police Force, and shall be subject to the authority and discipline to which a member of the Malta Police Force is subject'.

Under these regulations AFM personnel carry out normal civilian police duties. Our AFM, in this respect, is legally mandated to perform principally military functions and subsidiarily police and customs functions. The AFM is thus not a purely military organisation in the sense that it is tasked only to defend the state from external aggression as it also carries out civilian duties, perhaps something similar - though not identical - to the Carabinieri in Italy. I think that this model has worked out perfectly for Malta. When other civilian authorities need a helping hand, they can rest assured that the AFM is there to assist them.

Now I am not in a position to quantify the exact percentage of AFM time allocated to military duties and to civilian duties. But, going by what is reported daily in the local media we read that the AFM dedicates a considerable amount of its time and energy to assist civilian authorities. For instance, it patrols our seas to ensure observance of Maltese Law in our territorial sea; enforces customs, health, fiscal, and criminal legislation in our contiguous zone; ensures the observance of fishing legislation in our fisheries zone and when illegalities take place, they arrest and escort to Maltese ports any offending foreign fishing vessels; oversee that there is no hunting at sea, etc.

None of these duties are strictly military duties. But the AFM doubles up as a coast guard, as a customs guard, police force, and - in addition to these - carries out environmental protection, and fisheries duties. When the Gozo General Hospital needs to transport urgently a patient to Mater Dei Hospital, it is the AFM Air Wing that offers it service. When a vessel is in distress at sea, or search and rescue functions are required, it is not the Civil Protection Department that assists but the patrol boats of the AFM Maritime Squadron. When government needs additional internal security - a Police function - during general elections, when foreign heads of state visit Malta, or an important international meeting is convened in Malta, it is the AFM that is called to assist. When a person is caught on a cliff and needs assistance, again it is the AFM that helps out that person. When riots in prison or in detention centres erupt, once again it is the AFM that assists the Police and detention officers. The same happens in the case of crowd control where the Police might be outnumbered.

I am sure that there are other instances where the AFM carries out civilian duties that are not listed above such as security duties with embassies, the President of Malta, government ministries, etc. AFM personnel also act as court ballistic experts and each time a bomb hoax is received by any entity in Malta, it is the AFM that assists the Police in their investigation.

Nevertheless, what is important to note is that in all these cases, the AFM assists not imposes itself upon the civilian authorities such as the Customs Department, the health authorities, the immigration authorities, the Civil Protection Department, the Police Force, the Detention Service, the Prison Service, etc. If no request for assistance is received by the AFM, the latter does not intromit itself in the carrying out of civilian duties. This distinction is extremely important because it distinguishes the situation where the AFM is performing ordinary civilian non-military duties in a democratic society governed by the rule of law, and where the military takes complete control and command of the Maltese islands as when a state of public emergency is declared such as in the case of war, subversion of the democratic institutions of the republic, or an extremely serious natural calamity (e.g. earthquake, severe flooding, etc.). In the latter case of a public emergency, the situation is totally different from the situation when it is Regular Law that is operative as opposed to a period of public emergency (otherwise known as a state of siege (stato di assedio; l'état de siege) that is regulated by Exception Law (otherwise known as Extraordinary Law, Martial Law, or Public Emergency Law).

Now in the case of Swieqi, the AFM has been called to assist the police either by the ministry responsible for home affairs and/or the police. The AFM are assisting the latter in maintaining law and order in the streets of Swieqi. Possibly the Police Force does not have the necessary man/women power to carry out all the necessary patrols and hence they beef up their resources through recourse to the AFM. Again, these is nothing out of the ordinary here. The deployment of a few soldiers on the streets of Swieqi does not alter the status of Malta from a democracy to a military dictatorship, more so that (i) the AFM's deployment team's terms of reference are clear; (ii) no state of emergency has been declared; (iii) the AFM are assisting civilian authorities at the request of the latter in terms of law; (iv) their task can be unilaterally withdrawn by the civilian authorities at any time; and (v) the military have not usurped civilian powers.

The AFM assists the police in road blocks where they can stop and search vehicles and, if they find illegal weapons or drugs, they detain the person/s concerned as well as the corpus delicti and pass them on to the Police. It will be the Police - not AFM officers - who will prosecute the arrested persons should the case require such action. AFM personnel can also administer the breathalyzer test during road blocks.

Thus, in the Swieqi case, I see no problem here for the deployment of soldiers in the streets of Swieqi for the AFM personnel are acting under the provisions of the Armed Forces of Malta Act and are empowered - under that same enactment - to carry out police duties. I understand that when AFM personnel carry out police duties, the Police would train the AFM personnel concerned so that the latter would know what rights and duties they would need to exercise whilst on the beat or when carrying out patrols or road blocks. For this purpose, there is the Academy for Disciplined Forces that is responsible for providing all required training to the Police, Civil Protection Department Officers, Corradino Correctional Service Officers, and the AFM.

So what is all this fuss with the deployment of a few soldiers in Swieqi to carry out police functions in terms of law? Rest assured that through this deployment there will be no military take over of Malta, a coup d'état, by the AFM.

Kevin Aquilina is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta