MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Next of Kin Visit: “No Flags Please, We're British”

THE families of Argentine war dead will be under strict instructions to fly no national flags during the dedication of the Darwin War Memorial in March.

Twenty-four next of kin are expected to arrive in the Falklands on March 12th for the ceremony at the Argentine Cemetery, where the memorial for those who died in 1982 was completed last year. The group is organised by the Argentine Families Commission and expected to include a priest and interpreter, but no politicians. Entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, who funded much of the construction, is due to travel to the Islands in a private aircraft for the ceremony.

Falklands councillors, speaking at a public meeting in Stanley last night, said they did not expect a repeat of an earlier incident where visitors from a flying club in Río Grande were photographed holding an Argentine flag in the cemetery.

Councillor Mike Summers told members of the public there were so far no plans to send plain clothes policemen to monitor the ceremony: "The ambassador in Buenos Aires will already have briefed and will brief the Families Commission again and again about what's acceptable. But I don't think it will be appropriate to send someone out there to rip down an Argentine flag if there was one: I don't think it would be an appropriate activity."

Councillor Stephen Luxton, however, said: "I don't have any objection to having a presence there, but because it's being organised as a Families Commission thing I think they will realise if there an incident out there, there won't be any more Families Commission visits. I think there's a great incentive for them to ensure by choosing carefully who they send that nothing does happen and that it's all done in the right spirit."

Councillor Ian Hansen added: "I think on the whole it's right to say that the Families Commission have been fairly respectful in this."

Although there is no law against flying an Argentine flag in the Falklands, Councillor Jan Cheek said she thought it could be prosecuted as "an act likely to create public disorder."

Councillors added that the visitor who had been photographed with an Argentine flag had re-applied to visit the Islands on several occasions since, and been denied permission. He had also accidentally sent to Councillor John Birmingham an email intended for a friend which contained derogatory statements about Islanders.

Another member of the public asked why the Argentine word for the Falkland Islands, "Malvinas" had been allowed to appear on the monument, and was told it had been agreed at the planning stage as part of the Spanish name for the Families Commission.

The group will stay in the Islands until 19th March.

Sue Gyford (MP) Stanley