MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Assembling of the Argentine Memorial begins today.

Even from a distance the windswept hill where the Argentine Military Cemetery stands - on the still disputed Falkland Islands - looked different. Gone is the main cross and the wooden fence at the back of this enclosed graveyard laid out like an inverted letter T. In its place we now find a crescent shaped trench where the Argentine War Memorial will some day stand.

Scattered across the surrounding landscape the paraphernalia of construction work ranging from a couple of portable cabins which serve as offices for the local contractors, earth moving machinery, cement mixers, a portable toilet, a forty foot container with markings of an Argentine freight forwarder and, lying in wooden cases at the back, the first crates containing the monument itself, the pedestals which will be sunk into the ground on which the Memorial will stand.

As we walk down the rows of graves with their wooden crosses and names plates ? many reading simply "An Argentine soldier known unto God" - it is impossible not to be deeply moved by the poignancy of the place with its many testimonies left by next of kin visiting the cemetery where most of Argentina's war dead now rest. The plastic flowers, the rosaries, the plaques and the simple notes fastened to a cross are all reminders of a lives lost tragically in a conflict which should have never happened.

Twenty-two years after the war the Argentine Families Commission responsible for this Memorial are hopeful that after so long they will see their dream come true.

Despite the on-going work there are still many gray clouds over the horizon and the construction o this monument - agreed by Britain and Argentina in the bygone era of Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella with support from seven of the eight island Councilors ? is still the subject of bitter controversy.

All sorts of non related matters involving Argentina, Britain and the islands seem to be cropping up and casting dark shadows over the future of this, arguably the only worthy project that which should really create no inconvenience to anyone at all. Restrictions on charter flights, names of Argentine servicemen to be included on the memorial, fishing rights and all sorts of other issues fill the pages of the latest edition of the island weekly newspaper Penguin News, with letters to the editor ranging from calling for the withdrawal of the permit allowing construction of the memorial calls to negotiations over sovereignty.

On the drive from and back to Stanley we are constantly reminded of the war as we pass minefields, the massive military base at Mount Pleasant or places with names like Fitzroy, Gooses Green, Mount Harriet, Tumbledown or Wireless Ridge which bring back memories of never forgotten battles. Whether we like it or not 1982 changed the history of these islands forever.

As we sail back to the cruise ship with which we will depart from the islands yet again we pass another reminder of the 1982 war, the Type 42 destroyer HMS Glasgow sitting at anchor at Port William outside Stanley. Glasgow, a 1982 war veteran in its own right which saw action in the 1982 war, is back on exercise in the area.

Sailing off into the misty South Atlantic and watching the hills around Stanley - where so much of the 1982 war was fought - disappear over the horizon one cannot help feeling deeply saddened by the fact that despite the time which has elapsed since 1982 the dead of this idiotic war still cannot rest in peace, politics seems to come back and interfere yet again.

While pondering over the sad fate of the Argentine war dead something which had happened earlier in the day came to mind, as we walked round the cemetery with two Argentine visitors and a Falkland Islander we noticed that the workmen at the site ? Falkland Islanders working for the contractor biding the memorial - carried out their duties with infinite care avoiding to step on the graves and ensuring that they caused as little interference as possible while working within the Cemetery.

Thinking of this it became clear that the Argentine families will surely eventually get the Memorial they have strived so long to get, not necessarily because the politicians of the different parties involved have anything to do with the matter, but because ordinary people are able to grasp the very basic fact that cemeteries ? even those where the dead of a past enemy rest ? should not be used as bargaining chips for ulterior political reasons.

Hopefully, and sooner than later, this long overdue Memorial will be completed and the families, the friends and that vast majority of decent, ordinary human beings of any nationality who wish to pay their respects to those who died in this tragic conflict will be able to do so in a dignified manner.

In the meantime, one can but hope and pray that the war dead of Darwin may some day be allowed to truly rest in peace.

Nicholas Tozer ? Darwin ? Falkland Islands for MercoPress