MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Set-back for argentine Memorial on Falklands.

The Falklands Planning & Building Committee which is under the Chairmanship of an elected Councillor of the Legislature has rejected plans from Argentina for a permanent Memorial to be sited at the War Cemetery at Darwin, where 255 Argentineans are buried.

According to a report on Falklands radio the Committee, which comprises Islanders and is NOT controlled by the British Foreign Office as frequently stated in the Argentine media, had received written objections from the public with respect to the proposed height of the walls - 2.6 meters - and the size of the structure. Protests were also voiced over the fact that the Argentine architects had submitted the plans in Spanish and not English.

Additionally the Committee, which democratically publishes in the local newspaper and on radio, the details of each and every planning application, had received objections from the residents of the nearby farms of Darwin and Goose Green, who maintained that the planned structure would constantly be in their view, and this was not to their liking.

Concern was also expressed recently during a public meeting in Port Stanley, that the plans involved the erection of 24 plaques on the retaining wall, and as there as 23 provinces in Argentina this indicated to the objectors that the 24th represented the Falklands!

The controversial permanent Memorial was included as part of the July 1999 Joint Statement (Agreement) which was signed by representatives of the Argentine/British/Falklands Governments, but on the provision that it would be 'simple and dignified'. Yesterday the Planning & Building Committee stated that the plans submitted from Buenos Aires, 'were not in keeping with the original request for a simple and dignified War Memorial'.

18 months ago the Argentine Government indicated their intention to erect a Memorial of around 10 meters in height, similar to that which stands in down-town Buenos Aires in memory of Argentines killed during the 1982 War. This apparently received an immediate 'no-go' from the Falklands Government. After a long period of inaction from Buenos Aires, progress was made after the non-Governmental Commission for Families of Argentines and War Veterans, took over the project. Two architects visited the Falklands recently and following a meeting with the Environmental & Planning Department in Stanley subsequently submitted their outline plans for the Memorial. To the amazement of the Falklands population the architects also added a 'Seco