Veterans in Senegal are still seeking recognition as the country holds a memorial day for Senegalese infantrymen today. The former soldiers mobilised in different ranks of the French army between 1857 and 1960 demand an equal pension to their French comrades.

Marc Gueye, who served the French army from 1953 to 1955, has vivid memories of the war in Indochina. "Fighting the Viet Minh was difficult. They always surrounded us," says a former soldier of the 18th riflemen regiment.

His battalion defended a "strategic point", the "Tonkin Delta, some 300 km from Dien Bien Phu. "I never got hurt," he says proudly. "All troops of the Viet Minh attacked us," he recalls. "We defended ourselves fiercely to stop the invasion."

This month, a French official, acknowledged the role played by the Senegalese soldiers. "France must forever be remembered for its freedom – Africans and North Africans died fighting for it," French Minister of immigration, Eric Besson, stated in a speech for various officials and former Senegalese military men. “We will never forget their sacrifice. They gave us freedom. We have to be just and grateful for these sacrifices. Equal pensions will now be the next step," he concluded.

But this official statement does not spark hopes for the veterans. The director of the National Veterans Sergeant, Alioune Camara, needs a more concrete recognition of the role of the soldiers. "We urge President Sarkozy to equalise the pensions of all former military men, so we get the same amount of money as the French, like Jacques Chirac did with the disability benefits", Sergeant Camara pleads. "France owes much to its former combatants. We have more than 400,000 veterans who were involved in wars from 1939-45 up to now. At least 40,000 have not returned”, Camara, who was captured during the Indochina campaign, said.

His colleague, Marc Gueye, has also received an unequal pension since the independence of Senegal in April 1960. "We used to receive the same pension as the French military. But after independence, France froze the Senegalese army pensions to cut down in money," he says. The retiree receives 381 euros every four months.

Several Senegalese intellectuals think the recognition of the former soldiers comes ‘too late’. The historian Ibrahima Thioub thinks it is inappropriate that “that Senegalese veterans receive lower pensions than their French comrades" and considers this "a concrete example of unacceptable discrimination."