MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

2 April gets its own website.

Tuesday 2 April marked not only the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of the South Atlantic War, but the launch of a new website called www.2deabril.com which could well open a new stage in Internet based debating forums. This new site heads its homepage with the challenging slogan “twenty years on the time to debate has come”.

Anyone suspecting that it just another website harping on about the traditional Falklands and/or Malvinas views would do well to check it out as it appears to suggest that some Argentines and islanders have started challenging long upheld views on this dispute and are increasingly questioning traditional wisdom on this matter, in the hope of moving towards a closer understanding of common interests and insurmountable differences with their enemies of twenty years back.

The site itself is simply laid out and offers different options such as - Who we are?, Objectives, Code of principle, Forum and Our Views, all of which can be easily accessed. Reading into these different sections we are told that this site is the brainchild of a group of concerned Argentine citizens who feel that twenty years after the war and following the upheaval of last December, Argentina is now at a watershed and must approach its chronic problems - in this case the Malvinas question - with at least, a new frame of mind.

As one flicks through the pages it is clear that the site has been created by people who have been in contact with the islands in recent years and are aware of current islander feelings towards Argentina following the tragic events of 1982. While not suggesting any given way ahead - other than the educated debate of ideas via Internet - the site offers itself as a forum where all aspects of this yet unresolved dispute can be debated by people of goodwill. There is no cost for participating and anyone doing is asked to agree with a basic set of principles to ensure that a level playing field is provided for anyone taking part in this initiative.

Clearly the biggest setback of www.2deabril.com is the fact that it is Spanish only which limits its practical use among islanders, British and non Spanish speaking participants. Like the existing Malvinas - Falklands Forum it runs the risk of ending up having a Spanish and an English option, a duality which leads to wholly different debates taking place in each language.

As a matter of fact, anyone regularly following existing sites with forums for debate in two languages will note that on many occasions the pages in each language are debating tot