MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas Families peregrination to Falklands with no Argentine officials

Foreign Affairs minister Taiana confirmed no Argentine officials will be on the flights

Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana confirmed officially that no Argentine official will be travelling with the Malvinas Families to the Falkland Islands for the inauguration of the Memorial at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin next October. “No, no one is travelling”, said Taiana when asked by the Argentine press.

This means that no member of the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will be accompanying the 370 next of kin that will be travelling to the Falklands from Rio Gallegos, on October 3 and 10 for the ceremony.

The ministerial statement is based on the fact that if any Argentine official travels to the Falklands, he will have his passport stamped, and the Argentine position is clearly that the Islands belong to Argentina and thus no document is needed. A stamp on the passport would mean Argentina recognizes the Falklands are a “different country”.

The 370 next of kin of the Argentine combatants killed during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict many of them buried in Darwin will spend a few hours in the Falklands before taking the return flight from Lan which travels every Saturday to the Falklands.

The ceremony is held on two consecutive Saturdays because of an only aircraft capacity and the fact that the Argentine government has banned charter flights to the Falklands.

A religious service will mark the official inauguration of the Memorial and later families will have some privacy at the graves holding the remains of their beloved.

On the second Saturday an image of Argentina’s Saint Patron, Virgen de Lujan, which has been toured to all 24 Argentine provinces will be lodged in a special hermite built at the Memorial.

The Memorial contemplated in the joint British-Argentine-Falklands understanding of July 1999, was finished in 2004 but had to wait several years for the official inauguration because of Argentine demands about the number of people travelling to the Islands (originally some 800, for which there is no infrastructure or logistics) and the overall freezing of relations and contacts with Stanley since President Nestor Kirchner took office in May 2003.

Nevertheless Taiana said that the next of kin trip “is very important because for years we have been struggling for the relatives to travel, and finally after five years we have been able to organize the trips”.

The Argentine government is paying for the fares, food, lodging and transport of the whole peregrination; from the moment the next of kin leave their homes and return.

Hector Cisneros head of the Malvinas Families commission who recently visited the Falklands said the trips are “strictly humanitarian”.

The Falkland Islands government policy has always been one of respect towards the Malvinas Families facilitating their visits to the Islands and to the Darwin cemetery.

This attitude has been repeatedly acknowledged by Argentine visitors.

Although no Argentine officials will be travelling in October, apparently members of the so called “White Helmets” Peace Corps from the Argentine Foreign Office will accompany the next of kin for humanitarian reasons.

The Malvinas Families have invited Falklands’ authorities and residents to the dedication of the Memorial.