Lisbon, 28 Abr (AIM) – The new Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, will “soon” visit Mozambique, in what will be his first trip abroad since the victory of the right-wing Demcratic Alliance (AD) coalition in the Portuguese elections of 10 March.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced Montenegro’s impending visit on Friday, at a ceremony in Lisbon, where the book “O Fim da Luta de Libertação Nacional em Moçambique, Operação Omar” (“The End of the National Liberation Struggle in Mozambique: Operation Omar”), written by retired General Atanásio Mtumuke, was launched. Montenegro was present at the launch, as was Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Nyusi gave no details about Montenegro’s visit to Mozambique, since diplomats of the two countries are still organizing the details.
The launch ceremony was marked by an embrace between men who were enemies on the colonial battlefield, but now regard each other as friends – General Mtumuke, and Jose Carlos Monteiro, who had been the second lieutenant in the Portuguese army who ordered his men to surrender at Omar, near the border between Mozambique and Tanzania.
Mtumuke had surrounded the Portuguese garrison at Omar with a 700 strong force of guerrillas. He said that Monteiro’s decision to surrender avoided a bloodbath.
No harm came to the 141 men commanded by Monteiro, and Mtumuke said this showed that the Mozambican liberation movement, Frelimo, was not fighting against the Portuguese people, but against the colonial-fascist regime which oppressed both the Mozambican and the Portuguese peoples.
Nyusi was a guest at the commemorations in Lisbon of the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of the fascist regime on 25 April 1974. During those celebrations on Thursday, he argued that the 25 April coup was built not only in Portugal, but also in its former colonies, whose Presidents were all invited to the event.
“It is necessary that in our schools, in Portugal and in the Portuguese speaking countries, we teach the truth – that 25th April was made in Portugal, in Angola, in Mozambique, in Sao Tome and Principe, in Guinea-Bissau and in Cape Verde, and our presence here today is a well- deserved tribute to the heroes of the anti-colonial struggle, and to the young Portuguese captains who, on 25th April, put an end to the regime that was subjugating our peoples”, declared Nyusi at an event held in Lisbon’s Belem Cultural Centre.
The Lisbon events marking the 50th anniversary of the 25th April coup were “the celebration of victory in a shared struggle”, he added.
He said that the Portuguese people, in celebrating their own revolution of 50 years ago “should not forget the contributions made by the African peoples”.
(AIM)
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