“They won’t stop now”, guarantees the leader of the clashes in the Zambujal neighborhood in an interview with SIC
A death of Odair Monizin the early hours of Monday, generated a wave of revolt and indignation in the Zambujal neighborhood, in Amadora, where he lived. In an exclusive interview with SIC, the leader of the clashes admits that he lost control over the situation after the tuesday night contempt and explains the plan that was put together.
The leader, who did not want to be identified, explains that setting fire to the Carris bus was not part of the previously defined plan. Before this act of vandalism was committed, the driver and passengers were asked to get out of the bus, something he says happened “without any problems”.
“The plan was to cross the bus in the middle of the road and use it as a shield. We were going to use it as a shield to send the bottles over and to the sides”, he argues.
To SIC, the leader of the clashes recognizes that the scale of the disrespect led to them losing their reason and ending up affecting the residents of the Zambujal neighborhood, in Amadora. He reinforces that he never asked others involved in the conflicts to burn vehicles or attack people.
“What I asked of them was always: don’t burn cars, don’t hit people, don’t steal people’s phones, people who pass you make way and let them pass. We here, our fight is against abuse of authority, not against people who get up at seven in the morning to go to work.”
“Hate comes when people hurt us, so we can also fight back”, he adds.
He denies any involvement or collusion with the conflicts that spread, on Tuesday night, to other neighborhoods in several municipalities in the country: Lisbon, Amadora, Oeiras, Odivelas, Loures, Cascais and Seixal.
“No, no, no. Nothing. Not even this neighborhood is in common with those in Cova [da Moura]with those from Reboleira, whether Portela or Almada. They are acting on the impulse of the person they were, the person who died. He’s like a Pope to them. A person who goes everywhere and respects himself. He shouldn’t be dead.”
He believes that the wave of conflicts will continue, due to the person in question, until the law enforcement officer who fired the weapon recognizes that he “made a mistake.”
“They want that agent who killed him to be a man and say ‘I was wrong. I was scared, it was very dark in Cova da Moura, it was very dark at night, and I saw so many people that I thought I had to neutralize the boy’ “.
