News from Angola – The president of the Association of ex-FAPLA fighters (Ascofa), Antônio Caetano Marcolino, praised on Wednesday the heroic feat of February 4, 1961, carried out by a group of nationalists.
On February 4, 1961, a group of nationalists led by Domingos Paiva da Silva and Imperial Santana attacked several institutions with the aim of freeing political prisoners.
According to Antônio Caetano Marcolino, this act began the national liberation struggle that culminated in the proclamation of national independence on November 11, 1975.
However, he said that legal entities must pay greater attention to all citizens who, in addition to having fought for national independence, also sacrificed themselves to preserve territorial integrity.
He lamented the fact that many of these citizens who sacrificed their youth for the benefit of their country are currently in a state of abandonment and without dignity.
In this context, he advocates increasing the blood pension awarded to former combatants to at least 100 thousand KZ per month against the current 23 thousand KZ.
He took the opportunity to draw the attention of legal entities to analyze the trajectory of those citizens who until 1992 were sergeants or enlisted men and who are without a decent pension because they are not covered by the armed forces social fund.
“These men who sacrificed their lives to defend territorial integrity and did not have the opportunity to increase their academic degree must be taken into account by the Angolan state”, he argued.
When referring to the registration of former combatants, he said it was being carried out with many gaps, as it was carried out in municipal administrations instead of within the political parties that fought for national independence (MPLA, UNITA and FNLA).
In their opinion, each of these parties has control of all citizens who were part of their armed groups, namely FAPlA, FALA and ELNA.
The central event of the celebrations of the 62nd anniversary of the beginning of the armed struggle will take place in the province of Zaire.