Disabled war veterans in Tete: Abandoned heroes?

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Disabled war veterans in Tete: Abandoned heroes?

3:38 CAT | 15 Sep 2022

Image: AIM

Disabled war veterans in Tete, central Mozambique, feel abandoned by the state. They say that their current condition is the result of years of service to their country, and want government support.

In Tete province, central Mozambique, former soldiers of the national liberation struggle and the 16-year “destabilisation war” feel abandoned by the government. Many live with some kind of disability acquired during their military careers.

Domingos Alfredo had his first contact with the war in the distant year of 1964. He broke his spinal column in combat and became unable to carry out heavy work.

“Today, together with the association [of the disabled], we are trying to get government support, so that we can form a junta and do something, because the monthly payment we receive can’t buy anything, and when this cold weather comes, I have problems,” he reports.

Rosa Xavier, a fighter in the liberation struggle, is in a similar situation. For several years, she has been suffering from pain resulting from having broken her left leg. Her other pain is from being left to her own devices. Currently, Rosa only receives a small retirement pension, without her physical disability taken into consideration.

“It’s a pension in name only. It’s very little, not even enough to send the children to school. I’m waiting for the government [to respond] , because I freed the country and it was in doing so that I fell,” she says.

Disability pension

Like Domingos and Rosa, many war veterans face serious difficulties in working and carrying out other tasks.

To address this situation, the Defence Commission for the Disabled of the Armed Forces of Mozambique (CODEFAM) was created in 2001.

Carlos Sozinho, Tete provincial secretary of this commission and also a war veteran, says that only a minority have benefited from 15,000 meticais (€234) state disability pension.

Carlos Sozinho served in the 16-year destabilisation war, defending the government. He left the field of battle with vision and hearing impairments, and says he never received any kind of compensation for his injuries. And like most disabled ex-military , Carlos depends on his children to pay his hefty health care expenses.

“My vision can be corrected with glasses, but my prescription is unique and a pair of glasses costs around 15,000 meticais (€234 ). I never had any support. And as for hearing, it’s the same – I never had support, and when I don’t have glasses either, I’m quite useless,” he complains.

What solutions?

In Mozambique, war veterans are entitled to six types of pensions, but many have not benefited.

The provincial secretary of the Association of Combatants of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLIN) in Tete acknowledges this.

″There is a prospect being planned so that they benefit from some things they need for their survival, that is where the problem of the pension comes in. There are many [eligible] and some have a pension, but it is required by those who do not yet have it. The government is doing its part to see if it can cover everyone,” he says.

Lawyer Bento Salazar says that the group is protected by the law, so there is no reason for them being excluded. “It is recommended that everyone who has in some way the situation of abandonment due to military disability should approach social security and can even be assisted by the associations that caution the military in this situation to assist in the process in order to benefit from this pension of disability”, he advises.

Source: Deutsche Welle