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Murdoch’s The Sun tells Cristina Fernandez “HANDS OFF” the Falklands

The page in Spanish and English published Friday in the Buenos Aires Herald

In a full page advert published exclusively in Friday’s Buenos Aires Herald, in English and Spanish, leading British tabloid The Sun admonishes President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with a “Hands off!” from the Falkland Islands, in response to the Argentine president’s letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, published on Wednesday in several British dailies.

The text followed a similar rejection of Fernández de Kirchner’s letter on Thursday from Cameron himself, who insisted that the future of the Islands “should be determined by the Falkland Islanders themselves.”

London 4 January 2013
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Thirty one years ago this year, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands with the loss of 255 British service personnel, 649 Argentine troops and three Falkland Islanders.

This action was in direct conflict with the UN charter’s principle of self determination in which the people of the Falkland Islands are British and have chosen to be so.

Self determination is a fundamental human right for all peoples.

Claims that 180 years ago Argentina was ‘stripped’ of the Falkland Islands are unfounded.

No Argentine civilian population was ever expelled. It was an Argentine garrison which had been sent to the Islands to try to impose Argentine sovereignty over British sovereign territory.

British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765 before the Republic of Argentina even existed.

The Islands have never been governed by or formed part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Argentina,

Until the people of the Falkland Islands chose to become Argentine, they remain resolutely British.

In the name of our millions of readers, and to put it another way: “HANDS OFF”

The Sun
London

PM Cameron was adamant that “whenever the Falkland Islanders have been asked their opinion they have said they want to maintain their current status with the United Kingdom.”

The Islanders are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favour of the existing arrangement in a referendum in March.

“I hope the president of Argentina will listen to that referendum and recognize it is for the Falkland Islanders to choose their future,” Cameron said, adding that “as long as they choose to stay with the United Kingdom, they have my 100 percent backing.”

The Foreign Office was no less explicit when a spokesperson said that the Islanders “remain free to choose their own futures, both politically and economically, and have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter. This is a fundamental human right for all peoples.”

“There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. The Islanders can’t just be written out of history,” insisted the spokesperson, adding that “there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until such time as the Islanders so wish.”

The Sun is a British daily national tabloid newspaper published in the UK and Ireland. It is published by the News Group Corporation division of News International, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

The Sun has the tenth-largest circulation of any newspaper in the world and the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom.