MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine: Special ceremonies.

At the stroke of midnight ceremonies began in Buenos Aires and Ushuaia remembering the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of hostilities in the 1982 South Atlantic War.

In the southernmost city of Ushuaia, where later today the main ceremony will be held headed by President Eduardo Duhalde, several thousand people - including over 1.800 South Atlantic war veterans who specially arrived in this city for the ceremony later today - began an all night vigil at San Martin Square on the waterfront overlooking the Beagle Channel. With the Argentine flag flying at half mast to remember Argentina's 649 war dead and veteran Dario Volonte, who is now an internationally acclaimed opera singe, leading the crowd in singing the national anthem the all night vigil got underway.

During the fifteen minute ceremony which included no official speeches, Schubert's Ave Maria and The Malvinas Hymn were also sung and a Buenos Aires province flag was presented to the governor of Tierra del Fuego by the mayor of the Capitan Sarmiento district of Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires, shortly before midnight several hundred veterans - many wearing military jackets and berets- together with their friends and families marched from different parts of the city to Plaza San Martin in front of the main Monument to the South Atlantic War Dead in the Retiro area and also sung the national anthem and The Malvinas Hymn.