MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Army kept funds donated for conscripts in 1982

An estimated 54 million US dollars donated in 1982 for Argentine servicemen, mostly conscripts, fighting in the Falklands War was “transferred to armed forces accounts” reported Clarin on its Sunday editions.

The report also indicates that scarves donated by Argentines and people from other countries moved by the appalling conditions in which the Argentine soldiers were sent to the battlefront "ended up in the dustbin", while money to improve and protect servicemen's conditions never reached the intended recipients.

"The funds were transferred to Argentine Armed Forces bank accounts and to the office of the military governor of Malvinas/Falklands at the time", reveals Clarin quoting from a report prepared by then Finance Secretary Manuel Solanet, who was in charge of managing wartime finances.

The publications appeared one day after the commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the Argentine April 2 landing in Malvinas/Falklands which marked the beginning of war with Britain that ended June 14 with the defeat of Argentine forces, and a year later with the collapse of the military Junta.

Full-fledged fighting in the Islands, which have been in British hands since 1833, officially began May 1, 1982, with the arrival of a British task force and ended 45 days later. The conflict, triggered by the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976-1983, claimed nearly 1,000 lives - some 700 Argentines and 255 British soldiers and sailors.

"Following the defeat, the funds were used for aiding veterans and payment of compensations. With the return of democracy in 1983, and remnant funds were finally transferred to the Revenue Service and absorbed into the 1984 national budget" states Clarin. According to the press investigation citizens donations for the war effort amounted to 54 million US dollars, almost double the cost of transporting Argentine conscripts to the Islands which military sources estimate in the range of 29 million US dollars.

Juan Carlos Rogani, an Air Force officer admitted that at the moment it was decided that "objects without commercial value be dumped, that is why many letters and winter clothing sent by relatives of the conscripts never reached them. Something similar happened with food donated for the conscripts most of them under 20.

"I felt abused. The clothing and food we sent the kids who were dying of cold and hunger never reached the Islands", complained Blanca Celia Ortiz de Cogorno one of the main individual donors and organizers of the relief effort.