MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina honors Malvinas' war dead

Argentina's Defence minister Nilda Garré paid tribute on Monday to all military and civilian personnel who died during the Malvinas Islands war, and whose courage in combat she contrasted with the dictatorship's “irresponsible decision” to take Argentina to war in 1982.

"This is a tribute to the memory of the officers, petty officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces, members of the security forces and civilians who fell in the (Malvinas) operations theatre", said Minister Garré on unveiling a giant plaque in the Defence Ministry with the names of the 649 Argentines killed in the Islands and adjacent waters.

This plaque in the Libertador Building is testimony of "the highest price paid by the Argentine nation in the 1982 conflict", underlined Minister Garré.

Representatives from the different forces, security forces and Malvinas veterans were present at the ceremony.

"It was another crime of the dictatorship; an irresponsible decision with horrendous consequences, when analyzed from the serious human costs and from the country's national interests". "The memory of that political and military action is, as all actions from the past we recall, a field open to debate, a combat for history and a critical reflection over the time elapsed that has influence over our present times and our future", added Garré. "Today my message is but an act of gratitude and homage", she added and went on to criticise the "cast into oblivion" which followed the defeat even after democracy was reestablished in Argentina in 1983.

Garré said that the sin of oblivion can not only be attributed to the dictatorship but also to many of its (democratic) opponents "who did not fully understand the drama and suffering occurred or distinguish with objectivity the legitimacy of the cause in spite of the illegitimacy of the petty manipulation".

In this context she called for a "deep reflection on what happened and how it happened". "It's imperative to listen to the thousands of young lads who offered their bodies in the line of duty to serve the motherland, who were victims of the State and who only began to have visibility years later", she concluded.