MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 28th 2024 - 21:31 UTC

 

 

Argentine veterans insist with identifying remains of 123 comrades buried in Falklands

Thursday, March 8th 2012 - 06:33 UTC
Full article 49 comments
The Argentine Memorial in Darwin The Argentine Memorial in Darwin

Argentine veterans from the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war with Britain reiterated on Wednesday a request for the identification of 123 unknown comrades buried in the Falkland Islands.

The request was presented by the Malvinas War Veterans branch from La Plata, to Julio Alak, Justice and Human Rights minister. It follows the presentation last August of an appeal before a federal court with the purpose of identifying the remains in the NN graves.

“In the Malvinas Darwin cemetery there are 234 graves of which 123 have no names and only have a plaque which reads ‘Argentine soldier, only known to God’” said Ernesto Alonso a member of the board from the Veterans organization.

Alonso recalled that at the end of the conflict in June 1982 “many bodies remained in the battle fields and the identification was left in the hands of the British, but in 123 cases they couldn’t do it because they did not have the ID ‘dog tags’ with names or any other element to help with the identification”.

Minister Alak said that in “today’s Argentina the identity is a superior value which the State defends and claims, as has been the case in the hundreds of babies stolen by the macabre terrorist machine of the dictatorship”.

Malvinas veterans are demanding the participation of the Argentine Anthropology Forensic Team, EAAF, a organization which has earned international acknowledgement for its identification of disappeared persons during the 1976/1983 dictatorial regime that ruled Argentina.

“We’re requesting the Executive to take the necessary steps so that a team from EAAF can work at the Argentine Memorial in Darwin and helps to identify the remains of our comrades and the probable causes of their death”, said Alonso.

“It’s a humanitarian request to which the British I’m certain will not object, when thirty years of the conflict have gone by” added Alonso recalling that in Europe they are still identifying the remains of combatants from the two world wars.

During the 74-day conflict following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands on 2 April, 255 British, 649 Argentines and three local civilians lost their lives. Most Argentine losses occurred when the sinking of ARA Belgrano.
 

Categories: Politics, Argentina.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • stick up your junta

    You argies might get some where if you stopped using words like insist and demand.have some manners,as for not being identified welcome to the club

    Of the 11954 burials in Tyne Cot cemetery, 8367 are unidentified
    http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/cemetery-tyne-cot.htm

    Mar 08th, 2012 - 06:53 am 0
  • brit abroad

    shouldnt be a problem! I dont think the Falklanders will mind, in fact they will probably assist in a very positive manner.

    Mar 08th, 2012 - 07:12 am 0
  • Teaboy2

    Well if they are going to dig them up for DNA testing, then they should take them back to argentina with them too.

    Personally i do not believe it is right to dig up a dead person just so those living may know who he/she is, its not going to matter to the dead person if they know or not, so why disturb there remains? Rest in Peace means they should be left alone to Rest in Peace and not be used as lab experiments to satisfy a few people still living.

    Mar 08th, 2012 - 09:00 am 0
Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!