Marcelo argues that it is time for Portugal to “take full responsibility” for the Wiriamu massacre
The President of the Republic marked this Friday the 50th anniversary of the Wiriamu massacre, Mozambique, stating that it is time to assume “in full what was the unacceptable and terrible work of some”, but that he held Portugal responsible as a whole.
In a published note place of the Presidency of the Republic with the title “It is time for us to assume Wiriyamu”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa points out that “today passed [sexta-feira] fifty years after the Wiriyamu massacre”, which took place in that village in northern Mozambique on December 16, 1972.
The head of state recalls that, at that time, “he found the year 1972, the decisive year for the fall of the dictatorship”, after having resisted, in 1971, the “institutional blockade of the regime with the frustrated revision of the 1933 Constitution”.
“In 1972, the maintenance of the Head of State, the interference of the breakup of the Liberal Wing, the growth of the Democratic Opposition, student, economic and social movements, several of them already in armed action, and the distancing of community sectors – culminating in the vigil of Capela do Rato – accelerated this terminal period”, recalls the head of state.
With regard to the colonial war in Africa, the head of state recalls that “the worsening situation in Guinea-Bissau, which would not stop with the murder of Amílcar Cabral, and in Mozambique announced the days of the end”.
In this context, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argues that “Wiriyamu was a sign of despair in those days of the end”, in “the way in which he shook all the classic arguments of the official position of power in Lisbon, as well as the alleged legitimization of the regime and the colonial situation”.
“The outrageous violation of human rights, the scale on which it took place and the frustrated attempt to hide it – with which we deal, which, in the censored press, we recorded these times – created the Power of Lisbon without ground, reaching those responsible troops in Mozambique, alerted even more military combatants and created a decisive focus for the ever closer Movement of Captains”, reads the note.
The President of the Republic defends that “internally and externally, Wiriyamu in himself and in the subsequent knowledge of his contours – was a mortal blow for the dictatorship and for its African policy and an intolerable front” for the Portuguese Armed Forces and for Portugal.
“It is time for us to fully assume what was the unacceptable and terrible work of some, but ended up making Portugal responsible as a whole”concludes the note.
On a visit to Mozambique in September this year, the prime minister, António Costa, apologized for the Wiriamu massacre, which he classified as an “inexcusable act that dishonors” the history of Portugal.
“In this year 2022, almost 50 years after this terrible day of December 16, 1972, I cannot fail to evoke and bow before the memory of the victims of the Wiriamu massacre, an inexcusable act that dishonors our history”, had stated the prime minister at the time.
At a dinner in Maputo, hosted by the President of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, Costa showed that “a relationship as intense and with such expectations” as that between the two countries, “is inevitably marked by diversity, the diversity of meetings and disagreements, of slavery and liberation, of progress and poverty, of war and peace, for moments that we certainly want to remember but also for moments and events that we have a duty to never, ever forget”.
“Relationships between friends are made like this, they are made of the kindness of those who are victims and do not remember, but also of those who have a duty to never let people forget what they have done and in the face of history one must repent”, he pointed out.
The prime minister considered that this should be done because Portugal knew how to reinvent its history with the overthrow of the dictatorship, “which opened the doors to peace so that the independence gained from Mozambique has definitively consecrated our relations as friendly relations between sovereign countries , free and equal”.
Today, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, also marked the 50th anniversary of the Wiriamu massacre, stating that it is important to ask for forgiveness for the approximately 400 civilian victims.
“Today, 50 years have passed since the Wiriamu massacre and that fact must be recorded. It is a fact that makes us ashamed, but it must not be forgotten”, stressed Santos Silva.
The president of parliament considered that “today is the day to remember the massacre, to ask forgiveness from its victims and to honor those, like Fr. [Adrian] Hastings, which they denounced, and also to honor the captains of April”.
On December 16, 1972, in Wiriyamu (Mozambique), around 400 unarmed civilians were killed by Portuguese soldiers.