About fifty ex-combatants of the colonial war protested this Saturday in Porto against non-compliance with the Statute of Ex-Combatants and went on a hunger strike since August 17 near the Belém Palace in Lisbon.
António Silva of the Ex-Combatant’s Statute Dignity Commission (EAC) told Lusa that 100 ex-combatants of the colonial war (1961-1974) would go on a “hunger strike at the door of the Presidency of the Republic” from 17 August.
The first day of the hunger strike is August 17, the former colonial war fighter said, adding that the strikers leave the door of the Belém Palace only when the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, appeals to the Ministry of National Defense and asks to cancel the old combat statute.
“We demand to cancel the law, because it is not observed. Constitution [da República] is not respected in Portugal,” said António Silva.
According to António Silva, the status is not fulfilled at different levels, whether in museums, transport, or the difficulty of accessing ex-combatant (AC) cards.
“Half of the ex-combatant cards have not yet been issued,” he said, referring to the fact that many ex-combatants die without access to the combatant card.
Another example mentioned is the case of ex-combatants from Braganca, who cannot use public transport because the passes issued are intermodal, but they must issue passes on a “national basis”.
Museums that are supposed to be free for ex-combatants, many ex-combatants are forced to pay admission, as is the case at the Monumento ao Combatente do Ultramar in Belém (Lisbon), where they have to pay, António Silva cited as an example that there were problems and even “the police were called”.
Another example is the black fighters who fought alongside the Portuguese and who have “serious health problems and no one cares about them,” he added, acknowledging that if it weren’t for these blacks from the former colonies who had “13 years of war” when the Portuguese arrived there, “they all died there.”
The 100 ex-combatants who will go on hunger strike from August 17, aged 70 to 86, live throughout the country, 34 of them in Lisbon, 12 in Porto.
“The oldest is 86 years old,” Antonio Silva confirmed.
The strike will take place next to the Belém Palace “until the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, takes up a position in accordance with the statute of the combatant.”
On this Saturday afternoon, about 50 ex-combatants gathered in Carlos Alberto Square, next to the monument to the Unknown Soldier, where signs such as “Respect foreign combatants. Do not despise them” or “Guardians of the Motherland. Participants in foreign wars, the last heroes of the empire.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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