MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas veterans planning to charter a ship.

Argentine Malvinas veterans are thinking of chartering a vessel to travel to the Falkland Islands for the inauguration of the recently finished Memorial in Darwin, “if the Islanders won't allow us to charter a flight”, reports Clarín from Buenos Aires.

Héctor Cisneros president of the Relatives of the Malvinas Fallen Committee confirmed contacts with the British Embassy in Buenos Aires to formalize their claim (request¿?) to inaugurate the Darwin Memorial no later than next September, "although first they must convince the reluctant Islanders". "If the Islanders won't allow us to charter a plane we'll find the way of chartering a vessel", insisted Mr. Cisneros.

The Malvinas Relatives Committee is planning to participate with at least one next of kin for each of the 649 Argentines killed in the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, plus special guests adding up to over 700, "which would be impossible to achieve with the regular Lan Chile weekly flight that once a month stops in Rio Gallegos".

Clarin underlines that Islanders are furious with the Argentine government for having banned or limited the number of charter flights from Punta Arenas, Chile, crossing Argentine air space, and therefore strongly oppose Argentine next of kin flying to the Islands in air charters.

However the press also indicates that the whole operation to the Islands, including transport, lodging and food is extremely costly and currently there are no financial resources.

The only previous similar operation took place in 1991 when the first visit ever of Argentine next of kin to Darwin cemetery, organized by the Red Cross and flying from Chile in a chartered aircraft. The total number of travellers then was 354.

The Argentine Memorial in Darwin was one of the points included in the July 1999 Agreement signed by Argentina, Britain and the Falklands.

The million US dollars project designed and built in Argentina, and later assembled in the Falklands by a local company was mostly financed by Argentine tycoon Eduardo Eurnekian.

The Memorial was finalized last April and delivered to Argentine architect Carlos D'Aprile who designed it and supervised the assembling operation in Darwin.

Clarin also reports that the original 234 crosses of the Darwin cemetery which have been replaced in the Memorial by new ones have been shipped and should be arriving in Argentina this week.

The crosses will be offered to the relatives and a few will end in a Malvinas museum to be built by the government of the city of Buenos Aires.