MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Galtieri: Little UK impact
Reports of the death of former Argentine President, General Leopoldo Galtieri, were given low prominence in the British media.
It was not a headline story in the main television news broadcasts, which carried the announcement in a few sentences way down their bulletins, even below the death of a famous pop star, Maurice Gibb. Galtieri's passing got little front-page coverage, in contrast to the way his actions dominated the news over 20 years ago.
The main national newspapers printed detailed obituaries all highlighting General Galitieri's instigation of the 1982 Falklands invasion and subsequent defeat by the task force sent by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
All express revulsion over his actions as a military commander and as President, and no sadness at his death. They remark on his lack of repentance for an invasion which cost the lives of about 1,000 fighting men.
The Times headed its obituary with the words: "Argentine dictator who led his country into a military adventure without reckoning on the resolve of Margaret Thatcher".
By coincidence the news on the day of his death was dominated by the resolve of the present Prime Minister, Tony Blair, facing a similar decision whether to send British forces into military action against another dictator ? Saddam Hussein of Iraq, as the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sailed to the Middle East leading the biggest British task force since the Falklands War.
The Guardian carried a brief report on its front page with a longer obituary inside, referring to him as "The dictator of an Argentine regime, with a grim human rights record, who led his country into the disaster of the Falklands War".
"Falklands warmonger escapes justice" The mass circulation Daily Mail headline declared: "Galtieri, the Falklands warmonger reviled by his people, dies in obscurity". It said "his death means he has escaped justice for series of horrific human rights abuses in Argentina's so-called dirty war".
Perhaps the least critical obituary is by the Financial Times correspondent, Jimmy Burns, who was in Argentina at the time of the invasion and wrote the book "The Land that Lost its Heroes".
One of the most critical reports, picked up by BBC Monitoring Service, is that in the Buenos Aires Clarin ridiculing General Galtieri for military incompetence.
Baroness Thatcher declined to comment on his death but former Falkland Islands Governor, Sir Rex Hunt, gave his reaction in several media interviews. Various reports carried comments by the Welsh Guardsman badly burned in the Argentine bombing of the landing craft Sir Galahad, by Royal Navy doctor Rick Jolly whose medical teams saved the lives of many British and Argentine wounded, and by Falklands Councillor John Birmingham.
No tears in Falklands Councillor Birmingham is quoted as saying tears will not be shed. "As far as the people of the Falklands are concerned ?and probably the majority of people on Argentina ? he was a dictator of the old school and his passing will cause no great sadness to anybody. The man was despicable. There is no respect for him here and there won't be any sadness".
Captain Rick Jolly, who was awarded medals by both Britain and Argentina for his humanitarian medical work in the conflict, said: "I don't shed a tear for him at all. Galtieri represents all that was bad about that oppressive, dirty and bloody-handed military junta".
Simon Weston said: "I carry the scars for the rest of my life for what he inflicted on me and on that part of the world. But he's gone now, and hopefully we will never have to see another lunatic like him. He is not going to be missed".
While focusing on the Falklands War, for which General Galtieri was sent to prison for several years in the 1980s, the British media also recall his alleged implication in human rights atrocities in Argentina's dirty war in which tens of thousands of Argentines disappeared, presumed kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the military.
BBC World Service radio carried an interview with Mercopress Correspondent Harold Briley, describing Galtieri at the peak of his power at the time of the invasion and his subsequent downfall.
Harold Briley, (MP) London.
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