Bissau. Ex-combatants lived next to the Portuguese embassy
“ANDBetween 1963 and 1974, around 250,000 Portuguese soldiers fought in Guinea-Bissau. Of these, 40,000 were Guineans by origin, exercising their military duty entirely in favor of Portugal, with the respective constitutional guarantees as Portuguese and defending that same homeland”, said Amadu Djau, president of the Association of Descendants and Widows of Portuguese Ex-Combatants in Guinea -Bissau.
According to the official, those soldiers “fought with honor and dignity for Portugal in scrupulous fulfillment of the obligatory mission”.
“They were not forced, but enticed, deceived, taken advantage of their inexperience and even deceived on how to have a better future after the war”, stated Amadu Djau, in a statement read to journalists.
According to the same source, the Portuguese authorities “summarily” and without “legal coverage, deprived those Guinean fighters of Portuguese nationality” through Decree-Law No. 308/75 of June 1975″, which regulated the had Portuguese nationality during the decolonization process.
“As a result of the act perpetrated here by those responsible overseas, we were deprived of obtaining identification pieces”, stated Amadu Djau, considering that legislation “racist and illegal of the revolutionary State”.
The president of the Association of Descendants and Widows of Portuguese Ex-Combatants in Guinea-Bissau registered the signing of the Algiers Agreement, on August 26, 1974, between Portugal and the Guinean State.
In the agreement, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) promises to protect the former Guinean combatants who fought for Portugal and the Portuguese State would participate in a plan to reintegrate the civilian life of those soldiers, as well as to pay blood pensions , disability and pensions.
“History is not a court of law, nor does it serve to edify souls. What these warriors abandoned in the collapse of the empire ask for is not justice that is impossible to deal with, but the right to end their days as citizens of the country to which they gave their blood and trusted with their lives,” said Amadu Djau.
This Thursday, this person was received by the ambassador of Portugal, José Rui Velez Caroço, to whom he handed a claiming notebook.
Last week, the ambassador of Portugal had already met with a longing for the association to “exchange useful information about the activity and issues raised” by the association, according to a note on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Portugal.
Contacted by Lusa, a source from the Portuguese diplomatic representation said that no statements would be made to the press.
In February 2021, following other protests by the Association of Descendants and Widows of Portuguese Ex-Combatants in Guinea-Bissau, the Embassy of Portugal in Bissau referred that the responsibility for paying pensions to former Guinean combatants mobilized in that country by the Armed Forces Portuguese troops moved to Guinea-Bissau in 1983 due to demands made by ex-combatants.
“Responsibility for the eventual payment of blood and disability pensions, as well as survivor pensions, of former combatants mobilized in Guinea-Bissau and who served the Portuguese Armed Forces, was transferred, in 1983, to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau”, he said. the embassy, in a press release.
The embassy specified that the provisions of the Statute of the Former Combatant, revised in August 2020, “only and exclusively cover those who have made reductions in Portugal and who are, therefore, pensioners of the Portuguese State”.
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