Ex-servicemen to meet again to elect committee |14 August 2015

The Seychelles Military Retired Servicemen Association, acting as a steering committee for the ex-servicemen, held its first meeting last Saturday.

The association is aimed at promoting the interest of certain soldiers and also providing them with some kind of help.

It is also a platform for the former soldiers to voice out their concerns and problems.

“If we really want to see certain developments regarding the ex-servicemen, I believe we should take the examples of developed countries where the military existed way before the Seychelles was colonised. I am not asking to be compensated financially but we need to seriously work out at what stage we should reward our ex-servicemen and ensure that their lives as a civilian is greatly improved,” said one of the ex-servicemen.

The ex-soldiers believe the period spent in the military -- about 10 , 15 to 18 years -- deserves to be compensated.

A former officer of the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF), Major Gerard Way-Hive, said there was a need to form a serious association which should represent the voice of ex-servicemen.

“We need to have an association that should be elected now. Because if we always meet like that it means we are representing SPDF and not the association of ex-servicemen . We cannot just put forward only the problems we have. We need to come up with an agenda for discussion,” said Mr Waye-Hive.

Captain Marc Beaudouin, secretary of the current association, said to better represent the ex-soldiers it is best they (the ex-soldiers) become members of an elected committee.

He said the current association will ease the elections of the committee.

Currently there are more than 200 members who have applied to join but about only a hundred were present at Saturday’s meeting.

He added it’s time to have an elected committee so that the ex-soldiers can be better represented.

“We have agreed to meet again at the same place on August 22 to elect the committee. It will be responsible for bringing forward the concerns expressed by the ex-servicemen,” said Mr Beaudouin.