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OSSERVATORIO INTERNAZIONALE

A line that was clearly appreciated by the Protection Council of the ONU
that, dealing with numerous petitions from the Somali political parties sent
asking for against the SYL, expressed, to the Italian representative of the
Administration at the Council, satisfaction following the statements of the special repre-
sentative that the Administering Authority has never considered suppressing any political
party in the Territory”, and that “the political situation in the Territory and the relations

between the various political parties have improved considerably since these petitions were pre-
sented.
(48)
The massacre of Chisimaio , however, two years after the start of the
AFIS and 4 years after the bloody events in Mogadishu, confirmed how delica-
te was the general situation of order and public security in Somalia. What hap-
pened in Chisimaio and, more generally, the need for a more defined relation-
ship framework in managing public safety was certainly reflected in the subse-
quent approach to the issues under examination: with his own note of 12
March 1953, Administrator Martino intervened on the relations between poli-
tical-administrative authorities and Police Commands, highlighting the emer-

gence of many doubts and perplexities (...) on the competences, functions and reciprocal
relations between the Authorities responsible for the administration of the Territory and the
Police Commands operating in the various territorial districts and issuing some provi-
sions pending the creation of a public security system in Somalia and the
Statuary regulation of the Police Corps.
In summary, Martino brought back to Commissioners and Residents, poli-
tical authorities of the administration, the entire responsibility of public order
and security, entrusting them with the use of the police forces within their

respective territories.
The Police Commands maintained the technical direction of the police
services and the responsibility for the classification and discipline of the unit.
Considering the overall situation of the territory and the considerable difficul-
ties initially presented to the Security Corps and the Carabinieri, the tenor and
extent of the riots are to be considered rather contained and physiological
within a territory still in turmoil and under a progressive social and political
process, agreeing with Brunero when, among other things, he writes that in spite
of everything, order was guaranteed everywhere; the Italian law made effective; I gradually
imposed respect for life, property, freedom of work and human dignity. Without shocks,

without noisy measures, without beating the bass drum: in silence and in depth.
Despite the difficult containment of the political and protest initiatives of

(48) Official Records of the Twelfth Session of the Trusteeship Council, 16 June - 21 July 1953,
Resolutions, supplement n. 1, risoluzione n. 691, ASMAE, f. AFIS, cassa 9, busta 22.

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