MoSS calls for a meeting with the Veterans’ organizations
The Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS), through the Secretariat of State for Formal National Liberation Combatants Affairs, called for a meeting with the Resistance Associations, ASSEPOL (Association for Former Political Prisoners), FALINTIL (Armed Forces for Timor-Leste’s National Liberation), RENETIL (Timor-Leste National Student Resistance) and others. The meeting was carried out on April 28, in the MSS Room, in Caicoli and was intended to consult on the possibility of constituting a National Veterans Council.
“This meeting had the objective of consulting and subsequently presenting, , the idea of constituting a National Veterans Council to the veterans organizations, in accordance with article 35 in Law n.o 9/2009 of 29 July, about the Former Combatants of the National Liberation Statute, to obtain ideas and suggestions on it”, highlighted the Minister for Social Solidarity, Maria Domingas Fernandes.
“According to the Statutes, once the Veteran’s Council is established, the solutions are guaranteed for the issues regarding this organ” defended the Minister.
Virgílio Guterres, from the ASSEPOL association, enhanced that “this meeting is opportune and urgent, with the objective of finding solutions for the problems that, at the moment, affect the veterans. It is necessary to find solutions and not create new problems, thus it is good to consider and discuss seriously when the intention is to create a law”.
The RENETIL Secretary-General, Francisco Belo, stated that “many organizations or associations, already exist and now with the draft of the law regarding this Council’s structure it will be possible to review its members. In this way, each member will register based on the national level structure and subsequently at the district level. Therefore, in our opinion, the creation of this council is important to solve the problems of the combatants and veterans”.
The Member of Parliament, David Dias Ximenes, highlighted that “the Council may be created but it has to go through a more profound discussion to be informed about the issues faced nowadays by the organizations. The role this Council will exercise needs to be taken into account, in terms of its function and composition, before deciding. The most important thing is to take into account the national interest, the interest of former combatants”.
