MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No Argentine officials at Memorial unveiling

No Argentine officials will be travelling to the Falkland Islands for the inauguration of the Memorial to be erected in Darwin to the memory of the 649 Argentine servicemen killed during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict.

The news was confirmed this Wednesday by the Cabinet Chief of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eduardo Valdés, who has become the official spokesperson in the sensitive issues of the Memorial and non regular flights to the Falklands. "We believe no Argentine official must request a visa to travel to Malvinas", said Mr. Valdés during an interview with the Buenos Aires press.

Originally Argentine sources had announced that the Defence and Foreign Affairs ministers, Mr. Jose Pampuro and Mr. Rafael Bielsa, would be travelling to the Islands with the many relatives expected to be present at the inauguration of the Memorial in the Argentine cemetery at Darwin scheduled to take place some time at the end of March or early April.

Falklands elected Councillors with the backing of the British government had anticipated that regular migration procedures will be applicable to all travellers, officials or not, on arriving to the Islands.

Apparently ongoing negotiations between the Argentine government and the British Embassy in Buenos Aires have been unable so far to find a converging point for the controversy.

The official Argentine position is that having official passports stamped by the Falklands government would mean recognition of British sovereignty over Malvinas.

However the British Embassy in Buenos Aires in a brief release stated that no date has yet been fixed for the inauguration ceremony (of the Memorial) and no request has been received for Argentine Ministers or officials to visit the Islands.

The release emphasizes that versions saying that the United Kingdom has rejected such requests are "groundless".

Further on, the Embassy reiterates its full support for the Memorial, which is described as an "important humanitarian gesture and a crucial step in the reconciliation process".

An Aruba flagged vessel with the blocks for the 200 plus tons monument is scheduled to leave at the beginning of February from Argentina for the Islands where a local construction company will be responsible for the unloading and assembling of the cenotaph. The contract stipulates 56 days for completion and delivery.