Former military cooperatives accused the authorities of “vandalizing” crops and homes. Former members of the Angolan Armed Forces ask for help from the provincial government in the capital.
Agricultural cooperatives of former Angolan soldiers from the Calumbo commune, Viana municipality, in Luanda, accused local inspection agents and the police of “destroying” their crops and homes for the sixth consecutive time and are asking the provincial government for help .
The concern of the ex-military is contained in a letter sent to the municipal administrator of Viana by the Association of Merchants, Industrialists and Service Providers of Viana (ACIPSV), which protects the cooperatives gathered in Calumbo.
According to ACIPSV, in a letter to which Lusa had access this Friday, in March 2021 work on deforestation, plumbing, land preparation, installation of tanks for tilapia breeding, aviaries and hovels began.
The association said it had invested 860 million kwanzas in the space (1.5 million euros), the result of a bank loan, and that the invasions, allegedly commanded by the chief inspector of Calumbo, began in September 2022, shortly after the first harvest.
The ex-soldiers said that the “invasions” and destruction of crops also involved the participation of Angolan police officers, under supposed authorization from the Viana municipal administration to destroy even the precarious homes of the cooperators.
What worries us ex-militaries a lot is knowing that this is the sixth time that the inspection elements of the Calumbo commune see confusion in our cooperative zone,” they said, in a letter dated March 6, 2023.
The ACIPSV, in the document signed by its president, Francisco Gregorio Manuel, also requested the intervention of the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) of Viana and the government of Luanda to stop the “illegality”, which has been going on for more than five months. . and “severely punish” offenders.
They did not stop with the actions, they continue to practice acts of vandalism, such as the destruction of the irrigation system, the vandalism of the water channel that supplies the project, creating inconvenience and enormous losses and compromising the harvest that we would have in the month of December”, lament.
The association also said that, last February, they registered a situation of intoxication (with diesel) in the fish hatchery and that, in the first week of March, the “invaders” returned to “vandalize” the space, expelling the old neighbors. .military and other workers.
The associates also expressed themselves as “desperate” for the consequent “attacks” on their cultures and properties, also lamenting the “lack of responses” from the legal institutions to which they resort.
We have already appealed to the hierarchically superior instances and without success to date. We hope that the institutions and legal entities will take a position in the face of this situation that is getting worse every day”, he also mentioned.
Source: Observadora
