Defense Minister questioned over complaints from former combatants

The Defense Secretary opened an exhibition on the colonial war at the Armed Forces Disabled Association on Tuesday, but despite the praise he heard complaints from former combatants.

“They left us aside, they didn’t give us any importance, and we are the ‘fulfilling verb.’ Our requirements are always in the drawer. We ask for justice (so that) what counts as military service, everything counts as campaign (combat), we all participated in the colonial war,” said Manuel Ferreira Alves, 75, who fought in Mozambique from 1970 to 1972.

Addressing the Minister of Defence, after visiting an exhibition and laying flowers in memory of those killed in the colonial war at the headquarters of the Armed Forces Disabled Association, the former soldier raised his voice and complained about his pension and lack of support from the state. .

“For my (military) service I receive 278 euros a month, but I was on a campaign – in the theater of war – with a rifle on my back, with cartridge belts, with combat rations (…) We went there for three to five days, not knowing where the enemy was. We had two killed and three left without legs,” recalled the same soldier, who was applauded by his former comrades in the colonial war, after being interrogated by the Minister of Defense.

Complaints from former participants in the Colonial War (1961-1975) are constantly received.

In April, a movement of ex-combatants asked the Ministry of Defense to hear them, challenging combatant status, which they classified as a “bunch of nothing”.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday about complaints from former combatants, including those disabled by the colonial war, Nuno Melo said the government would offer solutions to the problems.

“I have known several ex-combatants for many years, unfortunately it does not take many associations to bring to light the problems that we all know about. The only thing I can say is that I will try to respond to these demands with work and, if everything goes well, with some results it is possible,” the defense minister said.

Nuno Melo added that he maintains good relations with the Armed Forces Disabled Association (ADFA) and the League of Combatants.

“We are here to solve these problems and present solutions in the very short term. We’ll see,” Nuno Melo said, without wanting to elaborate.

The Armed Forces Disabled Association, founded in May 1974, has more than six thousand members, and there are still issues to be resolved, namely treatment for ex-combatants with “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD) or widows’ pensions. .

“I don’t even know if I can call it charity or pension. These are pensions of 250 euros (…), and we have widows with pensions of just over a hundred euros. Many of them had to take care of their husbands with post-traumatic stress disorder or serious injuries,” ADFA President Colonel Santa Clara Gómez told reporters, stressing that in these cases the state is abandoning its obligations “which are provided for by law.”

The exhibition “Colonial War – The Untold Story,” which opened on Tuesday at the ADFA headquarters in Lisbon, features artifacts from the collection of the Famalicão Colonial War Museum.

The exhibition includes medals, photographs, aerograms, letters and original photographs, as well as uniforms and combat rations.

“The first time I ate this and liked it, it was in the barracks in Mozambique. From then on, when we started going into the bush, which was every day, things stopped being so good,” said Diamantino Fernandez, 75. , who fought in northern Mozambique in the early 1970s, where he was blown up by a mine.

“First two cars passed by, and then my Unimog (military vehicle) hit a mine. I was in transmission, my injury does not count as if it were in a combat situation, despite the fact that I was in a combat zone “, the soldier complains without answer. look away from the combat rations that are over fifty years old.