MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK confirms it claims repayment of £ 45m loaned to Argentine Junta that invaded the Falklands

Then Labour Foreign Secretary David Owen signed the loan despite doubts about funding a military Junta with a bad human rights record

The UK is seeking repayment of a loan granted to Argentina in 1979 which was invested in military procurement some of which was used during the Falkland Islands conflict.

A government spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday the UK claims repayment of a debt owed by the Argentine government. The £ 45 million (71 million dollars) were lent to the country’s (1976/1983) military Junta in 1979.

The money was reportedly used, in part, to buy weapons and equipment some of which were later used at the Malvinas war, “including two Lynx helicopters and two Type 42 warships,” as the newspaper Financial Times stated as it broke the story on Monday.

The Type 42 destroyers were deployed during the invasion of the Falklands as well as two Lynx helicopters, one of which was among the first to arrive on the Islands after the assault was launched, the Daily Mail reported.

A spokesman for the UK Business department Export Finance confirmed “the government has no plans to offer debt forgiveness.”

According to the British newspaper The Telegraph, documents uncovered by the group the Jubilee Debt Campaign show how then Labour Foreign Secretary David Owen signed off the loans despite raising doubts about how they could fund arms sales to a regime with a bad human rights record.

The group advocates the forgiveness of the debt by saying the “loans were recklessly given to dictators“.

Nick Dearden, director of the campaign, said: ”Lending the military junta money to buy British weapons was illegitimate and odious.“

“It is an old pending debt that relates to unpaid exportation contracts dating before 1982,” a government spokesman explained on Tuesday. He added that if Argentina required ”further debt relief“ it should approach the Paris Club, an intergovernmental body that deals with such issues.

Last week, in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Foreign Secretary William Hague accused Argentina of intimidating, harassing and threatening islanders and said its policy towards the Falklands was ”deeply regrettable”.