MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas issue is “out of the freezer” and “on the table”

This week's resolution from the United Nations Decolonisation Committee definitively means that the sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas Islands has been taken “out of the freezer”.

In a long interview with a Buenos Aires daily Argentina's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Taiana said that a very "special colonial pending situation in the realm of United Nations, the Malvinas Islands?is now out of the freezer and after years is back on the table".

On Thursday the 27 country members of the Decolonization Committee or C24, called on Argentina and the United Kingdom to resume talks on the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute so that a peaceful and negotiated settlement can be reached.

Argentina argues the Malvinas were usurped by an act of force by the United Kingdom in 1883, a situation Argentina has protested since. In 1982 an Argentine military dictatorship tried to take the Falklands by force but was defeated after a two months conflict in the South Atlantic.

Following the conflict, in 1990 the United Kingdom and Argentina renewed full diplomatic relations including an "umbrella" which left aside sovereignty issues.

However the successive British governments' have said that there will be no Falklands' sovereignty negotiations unless and until the Islanders "wish us to do so". For the UK defending the right to self determination as set out in the UN Charter "is a matter of principle".

Minister Taiana forecasted that from now on, "the British will begin sending very strong messages saying that no way will they negotiate sovereignty, because the Islanders are against talks".

However Taiana anticipated that in spite of the "peoples' self determination argument?we are going to persist. We must persist, persist and persist".

The Argentine official said that "this is not a case of self determination; the native island population was forcibly removed (1833), with no chance for return, and replaced by subjects of the occupying Power. This is a case of usurped territory because it's a colonial territory and not a colonized people".

Furthermore the UN General Assembly resolution 2065 (XX) of 1965 "confirmed that the right to self-determination was not applicable to the Islanders since they were a British population transplanted with the intention of setting up a colony", added Mr. Taiana.