MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Councillors regret Friday's flight's call off

Falklands Councillors regretted the “circumstances” that compelled the Argentine Families Commission to call off this Friday's private visit to the Darwin cemetery Memorial in Falklands where 237 Argentine combatants of the 1982 South Atlantic conflict are buried.

A small group of Argentine next of kin was scheduled to make a private visit this Friday to the Argentine Memorial finished last April, --still pending an official inauguration?but a meeting at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week finally convinced the Families Commission to call off the visit, since it was considered convenient that "no officials should participate" given the humanitarian characterization of the homage, according to the Argentine press.

Tuesday evening a spokesperson for the Families Commission advanced to MercoPress that traveling to the Islands on this one off-private flight to conduct a brief ceremony to mark the completion of the Memorial "could be politically misconstrued", and therefore their decision.

The Argentine press reports that a week ago members of the Families Commission met with Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa plus the head of the Malvinas desk Santos Goñi and the official line was that "no Argentine or British officials" should travel to the Islands for the event and avoid "any contact with the Falklands Legislative Council".

Apparently the Families Commission had invited Sir Robin Christopher, British Ambassador in Buenos Aires and one of the great sponsors of the Memorial project, to join them in the private visit to the Memorial.

Furthermore the Families Commission was planning to appeal directly to the Falklands Legislative Council and Governor Howard Pearce for authorization of a full inauguration of the Memorial next September.

However the Families Commission finally in an official release on the sensitive issue said they had no intention of "interfering with the international policy of the Argentine government".

Islanders since the current Argentine President Kirchner administration policy of ignoring the local elected Council plus interfering with Falklands' fisheries and banning charter flights from Chile have flatly refused to any mass inauguration of the Memorial that could be politically tainted.

Last July 15th it was announced that the Argentine Families Commission had sought the agreement of the Falkland Islands Government for a day visit by a small group from the Commission to the Argentine Memorial at Darwin on Friday 6 August, "to enable them to conduct a short ceremony to mark the completion of construction work".

At the time Falkland Island Councilors had given their agreement to the visit which would be of no more than twelve in number and would not include any Argentine politicians or officials. The visitors were to travel to the Islands in a private aircraft under the terms of the Argentine-British understanding on private flights signed in February 2001.

In response to the situation the Legislative Council of the Falklands this Wednesday made a public release stating that, "We regret that circumstances have compelled the Families Commission to call off their visit. Falkland Islanders have always welcomed visits from the next of kin, and we are disappointed not to be able to meet the Families Commission on Friday".

Falklands Councillor Richard Cockwell interviewed on Wednesday by the local FIBS Broadcasting said the passenger list of the Friday private flight from Argentina had "not been received" adding that if British Ambassador Sir Robin Christopher had been invited and was in the list he obviously was not an Argentine official..