[ad_1]
The CDS-PP demanded, this Sunday, the “immediate exit” of activist Mamadou Ba from the Working Group for the Prevention and Fight against Racism and Discrimination, created by the Government in January, for “insulting” Lieutenant Colonel Marcelino da Woods.
In a statement signed by Vice President Miguel Barbosa, the CDS-PP recalls that it had already criticized the appointment of Mamadou Ba to this working group.
“Mamadou Ba distills and incites hatred with impunity, benefiting from the passivity and the ‘blind eye’ of the authorities, despises the main references of our culture, insults our institutions, our laws and, more recently, one of the greatest heroes of our time – he is also the object of discrimination – Lieutenant Colonel Marcelino da Mata, who died this week, a victim of covid-19 ”, says the party.
The CDS-PP emphasizes that it complained, “before the deafening silence of the main figures of the State”, national mourning and State funeral for Lieutenant Colonel Marcelino da Mata, who died on Thursday, considering that “Portugal owes Marcelino da Mata the tribute that he never paid in life ”.
“The racist Mamadou Ba not only intends to ‘kill the white man’, his fanatical activism also predisposes him to ‘kill the black man’ if he is loyal and patriotic. He refers to Marcelino da Mata in unacceptable terms: ‘sinister figure’, ‘war criminal’ or ‘bloodthirsty enemy’ ”, says the leader of the CDS-PP, invoking the activist’s publications on social networks.
For the Christian Democratic vice president, these statements “make Mamadou Ba’s continuity in the anti-racist working group untenable.”
“Thus, the CDS demands from the Government the immediate removal of Mamadou Ba from the Working Group for the Prevention and Fight against Racism and Discrimination,” the party appeals.
The lieutenant colonel died this Thursday, at the age of 80, a victim of covid-19, at the Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca Hospital (Amadora-Sintra).
Marcelino da Mata, a native of Guinea-Bissau, was 80 years old and was one of the founders of the elite troop “Commands”.
After the Revolution of April 25 and the end of the Colonial War, he was forbidden to return to his homeland, a country that had since become independent, and was forced to go into exile in Spain until the backlash on November 25 (which ended with the ongoing revolutionary process).
He was the most decorated soldier in the Army, according to the branch. In 1969, he was knighted of the “Ancient and Very Noble Military Order of the Tower and the Sword, of Valor, Loyalty and Merit”, after having been successively promoted from soldier to major.
Marcelino Mata retired in 1980 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1994.
In January, the Government announced the creation of a Working Group to Prevent and Combat Racism and Discrimination, which will have five months to present contributions and recommendations for the development of public policies on this matter.
According to the published dispatch, this working group has a multidisciplinary composition, which includes the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination (CICDR), specialists and representatives of anti-racist associations.
According to the same office, the working group will be coordinated by José Reis, a member of the High Commissioner for Migration, and will be made up of 15 members, including Mamadou Ba, director of SOS Racismo.
[ad_2]
