The parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously approved a vote on Tuesday condemning the atrocities committed by the Myanmar military junta against the Bayingyi community of Portuguese descent.
“Last May, the Myanmar military junta [antiga Birmânia] launched an offensive in the north of the country, having as one of its objectives the Bayingyi minority of Portuguese descent”, reads the text presented by the Liberal Initiative (IL) parliamentary group and approved unanimously this Tuesday in the Portuguese Parliament and Foreign Affairs. Communities.
Under the allegation of “anti-terrorist actions, the military junta has attacked various minorities in the country since the February 2021 coup, which toppled a democratically elected government and sparked a wave of protests and armed resistance in the country.”
“Since then, the escalation of violence in Myanmar has claimed several victims, including the community of Portuguese descent in the country, who saw many of their villages in the Sagaing region burn at the hands of the army,” details the unanimously approved text. by the deputies, citing information from the website of the current president of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta.
In the text presented by IL, it is added that the offensive was also denounced in a statement from the International Association of Lusodescendants (AILD) and an appeal is made to the Portuguese Government so that “urgently” adopt the “necessary due diligence with the international community” promote the internal pacification of Myanmar and the protection of the Bayingyi minority”.
The parliament “strongly condemns the attacks perpetrated against the Bayingyi community in Myanmar and expresses its support for all the initiatives of the Government and the international community towards the investigation and investigation of possible crimes against humanity and the protection of the historical minorities of the country”, concludes. the text of the IL.
On June 3, in an interview with the Lusa news agency, Joaquim Magalhães de Castro, researcher on the history of Portuguese expansion and director general for Asia/Pacific of the AILD, said that the community of Portuguese descent in Myanmar has existed for more than 400 years, the result of marriages made between Portuguese adventurers, many of them mercenaries.
They went from military to peasants, staying in the north of the country and maintaining the Catholic cult, contrary to the language and nicknames.
Since December last year, elements of Myanmar’s military junta have been attacking the largest Bayingyi villages, affecting “several tens of thousands of people”.
Joaquim Magalhães de Castro, a connoisseur of the region and the author of several articles, books and documentaries about these descendants of Portuguese, says that, for them, Portugal is “an almost mythical country.”
Only the priests, who have had access to education, know more about the country and some have already visited it.
These descendants of Luso have suffered the force with which the military returned to power, attacking minorities, that is, Catholics, since the Catholic Church has always been “against”, has always been pro-democracy, for Aung San Suu Kyi”, the former leader. and Nobel Peace Prize (1991), deposed and arrested.
According to Joaquim Magalhães de Castro, the military are back and use the same modus operandiWhat is it “repression, especially of ethnic groupsthe minority ethnic groups that rebel against this power, which is opposed to the military junta, mainly Burmese”.
Catholics, people of Portuguese descent are a target for the military who feel a “contempt and contempt” for minorities, the researcher said.
Source: Observadora
