MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Councillors robust reply to Gallo
“The analysis of demographic statistics presented lacks any kind of intellectual rigour, and is illustrative of the sort of shallow thinking that derives from the wish to interpret facts for self-serving political ends.”
So begins the response from the members of the Falkland Islands Legislative Council to a leaked report entitled "The Fallacy of Self Determination" which is apparently due to be officially presented to the Argentine Congress this week by the recently created Argentine Parliamentary Observatory.
Published in the Sunday edition of the Buenos Aires magazine Perfil, the report was apparently compiled by Tierra del Fuego Deputy, Daniel Gallo and a multi disciplinary team working with Falklands' census figures stretching from 1851 to the latest edition of 2001.
According to Perfil, the report dismisses the Falkland Islanders claim to the right to self-determination, under the terms of the United Nations Charter ? a claim strongly supported by successive British Governments ? on the grounds that the local population is not original to the Islands and cannot therefore be regarded as a separate people.
The response from the Falklands, written jointly by Councillors Janet Robertson and Mike Summers, after consultation with the other six elected members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) continues as follows:
"There was no native, aboriginal or Indian population in the Falklands prior to the first British landing in the 17th Century. Everybody who has ever been here whether French, Dutch, British, Spanish or American was a settler or an immigrant."
"Contrary to recent assertions from Argentine sources the right to self determination is not the sole preserve of indigenous populations. The UN Covenant makes no reference to indigenous or native populations in any of its references to self determination."
"All the "New World" countries at some point in their history will have had more immigrants than natives. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA and most of South America, most particularly Argentina, are populated by immigrants, but nobody suggests that they are any less entitled to determine their own affairs. Author Jonathan Brown in his book A Brief History of Argentina (2004) says that in 1914 in Argentina 40.9% of landowners were foreign born, more than 75% of manufacturers and shopkeepers were "alien" and 62% of winegrowers were immigrants."
"Indeed in terms of land ownership and occupation Argentine history does not make for very positive reading. The brutal and systematic slaughter of the native Indian population throughout Patagonia is the principal reason for the land ownership statistic. Whilst Argentina shares this in common with virtually the whole of the Americas, it is an important fact that land ownership in the Islands, by contrast, has not been gained at the expense of any prehistoric populations."
"Like any modern democracy with a developing economy, the Falkland Islands operates a coherent immigration policy which is designed specifically to benefit the islands economically, politically and socially. Permanent residence is granted to people of any nationality who, through their commitment and skill, contribute to this process of development, but no one, except Falkland Islanders, have an automatic right to this. The "planted" population referred to in the article has either been here for over a 150 years or has had to wait for a 7 year period before qualifying for the right to permanently reside here."
"Attempts to undermine the universal concept of self determination through the manipulation of census statistics is futile, and has no place in mature consideration of the basic human rights of peoples."
John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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