MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK Malvinas Day message next Wednesday

Malvinas Memorial at Pza San Martin in Buenos Aires

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will head next Wednesday April 2, --the 26th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands--, the main ceremony of the Veterans and Fallen in the Malvinas War Day.

The ceremony is scheduled to be held at the "General San Martin" Horse Grenadiers Regiment, which is the official guard of Argentina's Government House, Casa Rosada. According to the Buenos Aires press Mrs. Kirchner will be making a speech reaffirming Argentina's sovereignty claims over the Malvinas and other South Atlantic insular territories and will also call for Britain to authorize the "humanitarian visit" of the Malvinas Families to the official inauguration of the monument at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin. Last March first, when the opening of this year's congressional sessions, President Cristina Fernandez described Malvinas as "a colonial enclave in the South Atlantic" and called for a "humanitarian gesture" from Britain to allow the Malvinas next of kin to fly to the Falklands. "That's the only thing all Argentines are asking from the United Kingdom", she underlined. Actually Mrs. Kirchner is asking for an estimated 800 plus members of the Malvinas Families to fly to the Falklands for the inauguration of the monument at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin. However the Falkland Islands government which has always supported the Malvinas families' visits has on repeated occasions argued that managing a visit, so numerous, presents virtually insurmountable logistics problems. FIG has suggested as a viable option chartering a vessel. Not only do the Islands not have sufficient lodging capacity for such a number of visitors, if the changing South Atlantic weather forces the Malvinas families to stay overnight, but there are not even enough buses to transport the visitors to the Darwin cemetery. The total population of the Islands is 2.600.