Page 141 - Rassegna 2021-4

SECURITY AND STATE BUILDING IN THE EXPERIENCE
OF THE ITALIAN TRUST ADMINISTRATION IN SOMALIA

the Somali Youth League, its progressive absorption in the political dialectic of
a primordial parliamentary form is at the center of the recognition of the
Protection Council itself which, in the second part of the report referring to
(49)
the first semester of ‘53, concerning the political maturation of the Territory,
acknowledged that there has been a reduction in political tensions in the Territory and
that relations among parties and with the Administration have improved considerably (...)
The Council highlights the repeated assurances by the Administrative Authority to avoid hin-

dering the activity of political groups in the Territory and welcomes the increased representa-
tion granted to political parties in the Territorial Council, which has had the effect of increa-
sing the awareness of the parties in relation to numerous, pressing problems with which it
must confront itself. Again, Brunero also cites an important moral recognition in
this regard, coming from the international context: First chief secretary of the UN
advisory council in Mogadishu was the Austrian Dr. Egon Ranshofen Wertheimer, surroun-
ded by high esteem in his own environment and in the international one for his undisputed
personal qualities and for the high credit accorded to him by the Secretary General of the
United Nations, Trigwe Lye. A Law-abiding, lucid, unbiased public servant (with a hint,
perhaps, of “democratic fanaticism”) Ranshofen was well known for never showing precon-

ceived aversion, but not even a shadow of sympathy, towards our country. When he had to
leave Somalia for another important assignment, he dedicated the last days of his stay to the
compilation of a special report - naturally very secret - which he wanted to bring and explain
personally in New York: some indiscretions leaked, through his secretariat, but nothing could
be known concretely about its content. He had just left, when the commander of the
Carabinieri group was summoned - at an unusual time - to the administrator’s office: he went
there in a hurry, not without having asked his direct collaborators to wait for him in order to

arrange for a possible task that the inevitable “problem” would have required. But this time
it wasn’t a problem. With his usual, unsurpassed elegance, Ambassador Fornari limited him-
self to saying: ‘Wertheimer was very kind to me: at the last moment he gave me a copy of his
famous report for the UN: I gave it just a glance and we will have the opportunity to calmly
talk about it later: but there is a sentence that has caught my eye and that I want to read in
full immediately: ‘We must recognize that Italy has a great card in its game: the Carabinieri’.
This appreciation represents a common feeling among the Board of Protection
members, providing a clear confirmation of the favorable impressions towards
the Administration and its military and Police component in the field of crowd
management and public safety with reference to the first two and a half years

of trusteeship.

(49) Report of the Trusteeship Council, covering the period from 4 December 1952 - 21 July
1953, General Assembly, Official Records: Eight Session, supplement n. 4, p. 46, ASMAE,
f. AFIS, cassa 9, busta 22.

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