The announcement was made on Friday by the president of the institution, lieutenant general Joaquim Chito Rodrigues, at the end of a visit to Angola, the second part of Operation Embondeiro, which results from the Strategic Structuring Program "Conservation of Memories" of the League of Combatants.
"This program aims to guarantee the dignity of spaces where, throughout the world, a Portuguese person fell", he explained.
The program has already passed through Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde and Timor-Leste, where the remains of Portuguese people who served in the armed forces were exhumed and cemetery areas were recovered.
"Now it was our turn to come to Angola", said Chito Rodrigues, adding that he began the preparatory phase in 2019, when he visited, among other points, the Santa Ana and Alto das Cruzes cemeteries, in Luanda.
However, the mission was interrupted due to the pandemic, and work has now been restarted, with the support of the Angolan executive and entities such as the Federation of Former Combatants and Veterans of the Fatherland of Angola.
"It is a complex operation, prolonged over time, because Angola is a large country and during the conflicts of the last century, both soldiers from the then metropolis and those recruited locally fell into the service of the Portuguese Armed Forces and are spread throughout Angola", he noted.
The survey carried out made it possible to reference 187 places, including cemeteries and other burial spaces, where there are mortal remains of military personnel, in a total of 1548 references, he said.
On the ground, he added, there were "problems created by time" that made it difficult to locate the bodies.
"At this stage, we are concerned with solving some problems we have in Luanda", he highlighted, adding that the League proposed to rehabilitate the cemeteries of Alto das Cruzes, where 109 soldiers who fell during the Great War are buried, and that of Santa Ana, with around 500 graves of soldiers who fell during the Colonial War.
"The cemeteries need some work so that they have the dignity that we seek in our program" and honor the memory of those who fought for their country, "exhuming some, rehabilitating others and giving a monument in the Santa Ana cemetery the dignity that deserves the effort of a country and armed forces equal to those who fought at the time and are now in Angola alongside us", pointed out the soldier.
Chito Rodrigues said that a way to dignify the spaces where Portugal has fallen soldiers in the cemeteries of Alto das Cruzes and Luanda is being studied, "without shocking or ever confronting situations" that they encountered and "respecting what time and circumstances were creating."
The League is also open to requests from families who wish to transfer bodies, he said.
Similar operations in other Portuguese-speaking countries led to the creation of ossuaries, reconstitution of cemeteries and monuments related to this theme, said the leader.
The League of Combatants has already contacted five Angolan companies to carry out these works, which will be supported by funds from the Portuguese State and the League itself, and is awaiting submission of proposals.
"This is a process that is part of the DNA of the League of Combatants, which is to guarantee the dignity of places where fallen soldiers are found serving the Armed Forces", summarized the lieutenant general.
Also on Friday, the League of Combatants also announced that it will organize, in November, a congress that brings together military personnel from Portuguese-speaking countries, with the aim of promoting common history, social support and health support.
According to the president of the League, lieutenant general Joaquim Chito Rodrigues, who addressed the issue in Luanda on Friday, the congress coincides with a symbolic date, the 11th of November, which marks the Armistice of the First World War, in 1918, and the Independence of Angola, in 1975.
"These are coincidences, but November 11th is as important for Portugal as it is for Angola", he highlighted.
One of the objectives of the event, in addition to studying common history, is to find ways to improve social support and health support for former combatants and their families, said Chito Rodrigues.
The congress will take place between the 10th and 16th of November, in Lisbon, and has already received positive responses from the various Portuguese-speaking countries that it intends to bring together, as well as from the president of the World Federation of Former Combatants, said the same official.
