Portuguese occupy Consulate

ABOUT 50 Portuguese living in Namibia occupied the Portuguese Consulate in Windhoek late yesterday afternoon to protest it being shut down.

The offices were closed on March 15. Among the reasons cited was that there were not enough Portuguese in Namibia and that running the Consulate had become too costly.There are about 2 000 Portuguese people in the country.Yesterday members of the community gathered at the Consulate to hold a peaceful demonstration, planning to dig in until a satisfactory answer was received from Portugal.However Maria Lourdes, a consulate representative, received orders from the Portuguese Embassy in Pretoria to call the Police for help and have the protesters removed.This resulted in the arrival of the Special Field Force.The protesters at first refused to vacate the premises.”It’s a disgrace that the Ambassador tries to have innocent Portuguese people in another country locked up,” said Manuel Coelho.The Police then asked the women and children to leave and said they would carry out their orders to remove people “by any means necessary” come 19h00.The protesters decided to leave peacefully because of the women and children.They plan to return tomorrow, on Monday and every day thereafter until they receive a satisfactory response from Lisbon.”We are a peaceful nation and will not give anyone any reason to use force against us,” said Jorge Neves.”The barrel of a gun cannot silence the masses.”Among the reasons cited was that there were not enough Portuguese in Namibia and that running the Consulate had become too costly.There are about 2 000 Portuguese people in the country.Yesterday members of the community gathered at the Consulate to hold a peaceful demonstration, planning to dig in until a satisfactory answer was received from Portugal.However Maria Lourdes, a consulate representative, received orders from the Portuguese Embassy in Pretoria to call the Police for help and have the protesters removed.This resulted in the arrival of the Special Field Force.The protesters at first refused to vacate the premises.”It’s a disgrace that the Ambassador tries to have innocent Portuguese people in another country locked up,” said Manuel Coelho.The Police then asked the women and children to leave and said they would carry out their orders to remove people “by any means necessary” come 19h00.The protesters decided to leave peacefully because of the women and children.They plan to return tomorrow, on Monday and every day thereafter until they receive a satisfactory response from Lisbon.”We are a peaceful nation and will not give anyone any reason to use force against us,” said Jorge Neves.”The barrel of a gun cannot silence the masses.”