MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Penguin News Front Page plus Editorial
Headlines :
Nothing to apologise for: Governor Pearce: ?No nuclear weapons entered Falklands or Argentine waters'; Sir Rex Hunt's warning; Passengers left behind; Flight lobby continues; Ship Orion on its own; Students' change to benefit hospital patients; Editorial.
Students' change to benefit hospital patients
A GROUP of students from the Community School have given their loose change to charity. Teacher Tim Simpson's form class of just nine pupils raised £163.73 over the year, putting their loose change in a collection tin. Every year Tim encourages her class in this activity and a charity of their choice receives the money at the end of the school year. This week the class presented a cheque to Mr. Norman McGregor Edwards on behalf of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Mr McGregor Edwards thanked the pupils for their donation and said the money would be used to purchase personal radios for patients' use.
Nothing to apologise for Governor Pearce: ?No nuclear weapons entered Falklands or Argentine waters' THE Governor of the Falkland Islands has responded to demands from the Argentine Foreign Office that Britain apologises for having sent ships armed with nuclear weapons towards the Falklands in 1982 saying, "...it is not at all clear what there is to apologise about." His Excellency, Mr Howard Pearce, told Penguin News, "No treaties were breached, no weapons were lost, no radiation was leaked, no damage was done to the environment. So I don't really think there's anything to apologise for." Late last week, the British Government confirmed nuclear weapons were aboard Royal Navy ships dispatched to the Falkland Islands in 1982. However, the weapons were never brought into South American territorial waters. On Sunday, Alberto Fernandez, the Argentine Chief of Cabinet, said Britain must not only apologise to Argentina, "...but also to humankind," for having transported nuclear weapons to the Falklands Conflict. However, according to Mr Pearce, "None of these weapons were brought either into Falkland Island territorial waters or indeed into South American territorial waters." He said, "There is a treaty called the Treaty of Tlatelolco which establishes a nuclear weapon-free zone in South America. The geographical area covered by the Treaty includes the Falkland Islands. "The UK government had accepted the obligation to respect that Treaty and it did so in 1982 and no weapons were brought inside the area covered by the Treaty." Mr Pearce explained how the controversy had developed. He said, as part of its commitment to being as open as possible on defence issues, the British Government released information two or three years ago on, "...a small number of accidents and incidents which have taken place over a number of decades. "None of these events have been serious and at no point has any nuclear weapon been lost and at no point has there been any leak of radiation from a nuclear weapon." As a result of the release of the information, Mr. Pearce said there had been, "...a certain amount of interest on the part of the press and a number of follow up questions. The government has in particular had some questions from a journalist working for the Guardiannewspaper about some incidents which were reported as having taken place at sea. One of those took place in 1982." His Excellency said that at that time, a number of the Royal Navy's surface ships carried nuclear depth chargers, "...as a matter of routine," and seven of the ships assigned to the Task Force carried such weapons. He said, "When the Task Force was dispatched south to the Falklands, the government faced the question as to what to do about these nuclear weapons aboard these ships. The government at the time said explicitly that there was absolutely no question of the use of nuclear weapons in the 1982 conflict - that was never an issue. "It was decided that because of the urgency of sending the Task Force south and the need not to lose any time in doing that, that these weapons should not be offloaded in the UK but should be offloaded as the ships sailed south. As a consequence, the weapons were offloaded at sea as part of a normal procedure in the South Atlantic." During this process, Mr. Pearce said, the containers containing a number of nuclear weapons - "some of these were surveillance rounds and some were inert training rounds so they weren't all live nuclear weapons" - were damaged during these transfers. He added, "These were minor incidents and I should repeat that there was no damage ever done to a nuclear weapon as such - I think the most serious damage was some severe denting to the door on one of these containers. "All these weapons were returned to the UK - they were examined and they were all safe and the weapons themselves unharmed." Responding to concerns that ships sunk during the conflict may have contained nuclear weapons, Mr Pearce said, "...absolutely not - all the weapons were returned safely to the UK."
Briefly Rex Hunt's warning
Passengers left behind SEVERAL Royal Air Force Tristar passengers planning to travel to the United Kingdom this week were disappointed to hear they had been taken off the flight. In order to comply with Civil Aviation Authority safety regulations, due to a faulty door, forty-two passengers had to be removed from the flight which departed the Islands yesterday. The southbound flight was not full and no passengers had to remain in Ascension Island. Seven civilian passengers were taken off the northbound flight. The remaining passengers removed from the flight were military personnel.
Flight lobby continues BRITAIN continues to lobby the Argentine government to allow charter flights to the Falkland Islands. His Excellency the Governor, Howard Pearce said, "We have made it clear to the Argentine government that we wish the ban, which they appear to have imposed on the authorisation for charter flights from Chile or elsewhere, to be lifted." Full story on page 3.
Ship Orion on its own ONLY one cruise ship is calling into the Falkland Islands this week. Orion will be in Stanley on Thursday, December 18.
Editorial THE Falkland Islands Director of Fisheries was in Argentina this week to try to gain some kind of commitment to a long term fisheries conservation agreement, after years of slow progress. Such an agreement would be highly advantageous to both sides - after all, if there is no squid to catch, we're all in trouble. However it seems Argentina just can't see this and is more interested in apportioning blame for the vulnerable squid fishery onto us. As absurd as it sounds, they appear to believe our fishery is responsible for their damaged economy. It's quite flattering to think we, the teeny weeny Falklands, could have such an impact on our large neighbour, but I think they're purposely overestimating our power. This is yet another way to make life difficult for us. Kirchner's government has clearly decided to gang up on the Falklands and to them we serve as an easy victim at which to aim the bullets of hostile blame. Just look at their press coverage. The level of Malvinas-related reports coming from Buenos Aires over the past couple of weeks is quite overwhelming - none of it due to our actions, but instead originating from Argentina itself. Along with fisheries criticism, they've interfered with charter flights and have now resorted to blowing up (forgive the pun) stories of nuclear weapons carried by British ships in 1982. The prevalent factor in these reports is a tone of hostility and resentment. But surely this ridiculously hard line and aggressive attitude can only harm Argentina's chances of ever making any ground towards gaining sovereignty of the Falklands? The British government is clear in its policy that it will not discuss the issue without the support of Falkland Islanders. With the Argentine government bending over backwards to damage our economy and make life in general difficult for us, they don't stand a chance of Islanders ever supporting such negotiations. When will they realise this antagonism can only serve to strengthen our resolve to remain 100% British?
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