MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina asks more support from Ban Ki–moon for Malvinas sovereignty claim

CFK: The 1982 war can’t be blamed on the Argentine people but on a military dictatorship

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, CFK, renewed the Argentine claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who’s visiting the country on his birthday.

The Head of State urged the UN head to ask Britain to resume discussions with Argentina over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago that includes the Falklands/Malvinas, the South Georgia and the Sandwich islands.

Argentina’s claim of sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands dominated the Monday talks with the Secretary who is rallying for support for a second term candidacy as the head of the UN.

The President reminded Ban Ki-Moon that “Argentina, once more, expresses today its desire of having England accept the UN resolution that urges both parties to sit at the negotiating table”.

“United Nations resolutions must be accepted by all, emerging and developed countries, and even more by the developed because the more power in all fields, greater is also the degree of responsibility”, said Mrs. Kirchner.

“The UK has systematically ignored UN Resolution 2065, first because it felt so and later under the pretext that there was a military dictatorship in 1982”, said the president who added that the war “can’t be blame on the Argentines but on a dictatorship”.

“Next year 30 years will have elapsed since what happened in 1982 under the military dictatorship” and what happened then can’t be attributed to the Argentines, “because the first victims of the dictatorship were the very Argentines”.

Argentina “in terms of peace, sustainable development and unrestricted respect for human rights and condemnation of impunity is one of the examples of the world”, underlined Mrs. Kirchner.

Likewise, Cristina Fernández praised the UN organization and considered it “the common home of all democratic countries that intend to solve discrepancies” in a peaceful way.

“Argentina can say it is an important actor and with a great degree of coherence in the construction of peace because not only are we part of the peace missions in Haiti and Cyprus, but we are also most respectful o each of the United Nations resolutions”.

She added “it’s time that countries that have an important post, because they belong to the UN Security Council or the Group of 8, convince the rest of the world that they also respect US resolutions”

The Head of State also welcomed “Ban Ki-Moon's bid for re-election as the head of the UN,” and apologized for the inconvenience caused due to the Puyehue volcano ash cloud that forced his flight to land in Córdoba city, from where he was driven to Buenos Aires.

Later in the day, the UN Secretary was scheduled to visit the former ESMA Navy School of Mechanics, which worked as a clandestine detention centre during Argentina’s last dictatorship, and will take part in an assembly with Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde.

At the end of the day, Ban Ki-Moon will give a speech at the Foreign Ministry.

On Tuesday Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman will host a gala lunch in honour of Ban Ki-Moon, who will then fly to Montevideo, Uruguay. The trip is part of a South American tour that also includes Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil.