MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands and Argentina ready for C-24 Day.

This Friday in New York two Falkland Islands elected Councillors and the Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister will repeat the annual ritual of addressing the United Nations Decolonisation Committee, C-24.

Councillors Roger Edwards and Mike Summers will be emphasizing the significance of self determination for non self governing territories, while Minister Rafael Bielsa will insist with Argentina's "un-renounceable" rights over the South Atlantic Islands, their territorial integrity with Argentina and demand the resumption of Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty talks with the United Kingdom.

This will be second time Mr. Bielsa addresses the UN C-24, and although the official policy of President Nestor Kirchner's administration is to ignore the Islanders and their "pretended" self determination claims plus creating growing problems for the Falklands main industries, fisheries and tourism, the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs could have a "social and informal" exchange with the Islands representatives, reports the Argentine press.

Mr. Bielsa before arriving in New York will have called in Madrid in preparation for the coming visit to Argentina of Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Besides the visit of the Socialist president who describes the relation with Argentina as "strategic", the bilateral agenda includes some irritating issues such as Spanish corporations' investments in Argentina and the situation of thousands of Argentine (undocumented) immigrants in Spain.

The following stop for Mr. Bielsa before New York is Lisbon.

Although Falklands Councillors admit that as has happened year after year the UN C-24 final and unanimous, --but non binding--, resolution will call upon Argentina and United Kingdom to resume negotiations for the peaceful and amicable solution of the sovereignty dispute, they emphasize that "we can't subscribe to the resolution because discussions on sovereignty indicate some kind of willingness to compromise and there is no (Islanders) willingness to compromise on that issue".

"Self determination means what the people of the territory want, not what UK or Argentina want", highlighted Mr. Summers during a recent interview in Stanley before leaving for New York. And even when the UK policy has been basically not to cooperate with C-24, for the Falklands elected government "it's not particularly wise to let Argentina and their friends in Latin America go putting resolutions in UN bodies and making speeches and the like that go uncontested".

The speeches before the UN C-24 come on the background of last Monday's Liberation Day commemorations in the Falklands. June 14, the main national event in the Islands calendar marks the day when 22 years ago the Argentine high command surrendered to the British Task Force after a 74 days bloody conflict in the South Atlantic.

Besides last Friday June 11, flags on all Falklands government buildings flew at half-mast as a mark of respect for former US President Ronald Reagan, Lady Margaret Thatcher's staunchest ally, who is considered instrumental in the 1982 conflict and is credited for the logistical support that helped UK win the Falklands back from Argentina's Junta military adventure.

Last week Falkland Islands United Kingdom Representative, Miss Sukey Cameron signed the book of condolence for Mr. Reagan at the US Embassy in London stamping, "In grateful memory of all your support in 1982 from the Government and the People of the Falkland Islands."

The UN Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, better known as C-24, is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Chile, China, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Mali, Papua and New Guinea, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Tanzania and Venezuela, with Robert Guba Aisi, from Papua and New Guinea acting as Chairman.