MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands’ referendum: Argentina admits impotence and claims UK acting with ‘ill-faith’
Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman regrets UK irresponsible and ill-faith initiatives Argentina blasted the UK over the coming Falkland Islands referendum claiming it is acting with ‘ill faith’ trying to introduce elements of distortion by changing the definition of the dispute under international law, despite all the pronouncements of the world community.
“In an attitude which clearly is demonstrative of the lack of grounds for its pretension and above all lacking good faith, the UK is attempting to introduce elements directed to distort, changing international law definition of the controversy, which is reflected in the reiterated pronouncements from the world community”, reads an official communiqué released on Friday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the heading of ‘UK attempts to manipulate the Malvinas issue’.
“Argentina regrets these UK irresponsible and ill-faith initiatives and calls on London to seriously reconsider its policy oriented to misinform on the juridical and political reality of the disputed territory it is occupying (Malvinas Islands)”, adds the release which comes only hours before the Islanders vote next Sunday and Monday.
The release, a compilation with no new arguments on the Falklands sovereignty dispute with Argentina alleges that the UK has called on “the implanted Malvinas population to ask them on matters which only pretend to tergiversate the true juridical condition of the Falklands and the other insular territories and their adjoining spaces claimed by Argentina”.
The release adds that the UK, very much aware of its international isolation regarding the Malvinas issue prefers to distort the controversy instead of trying to resolve it.
However the UK can’t modify the terms of the controversy at its whim, and “the coming vote, as the many thousands the UK may promote in the disputed territories, can’t have the wanted result nor do they exempt London from its international obligations to peacefully resolve the sovereignty dispute with Argentina by the resumption of negotiations”.
This is followed by a long list of regional organizations which support the Argentine position in the dispute and call for negotiations.
The release then specifies that both the Argentine constitution and the UN resolutions mention the ‘interests’ of the Islanders and not their wishes, and recalls that on two occasions the UN General Assembly in 1985 rejected British proposals to incorporate the principle of self determination for the Falklands/Malvinas dispute.
Finally this new attempt by the British government to manipulate the Malvinas issue through the vote of an implanted population has been strongly rejected by Argentina as well as country members from Unasur and Mercosur, among others, since “this attempt will not alter the essence of the Malvinas issue nor will it put an end to the sovereignty dispute, which must be resolved according to international law and the numerous UN resolutions referred to the issue”.
From London a Foreign Office spokesperson defended UK's support for the referendum and the self-determination pledge that has prompted the coalition government of David Cameron to continually reject sovereignty negotiations with Argentina.
“The Islanders have the right to be heard and to determine the future they want for them and for future generations”, the British official said
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Read all commentsA Brit said:
Mar 09th, 2013 - 05:17 am 0”The reason the U.S. does not support the U.K. on this issue, notwithstanding their otherwise incestuous relationship, is simply because under international law there are territorial limitations to the right of self-determination for transplanted populations living in colonial enclaves where a pre-colonial claim of sovereignty exists. This is the case with the Falklands. As a coloniser, the U.K. cannot legally disrupt the territorial integrity of another State by implanting its own population unto the territory it is colonising.
In cases such as these, the inhabitants of the colonised territory have a right to have their ‘interests’ considered but they have no right to unilaterally determine the nationality of the land they live in.
By the way, conducting a referendum of the colonising population the U.K. has implanted in the Falklands, is simply an attempt to obfuscate the issue by the U.K. The U.K. tried the same ploy in Gibraltar in the late 1960s. However, the referendum it sanctioned then was declared invalid by the UN when it adopted Resolution 2353, which observed that the referendum was contrary to the various resolutions which had been adopted previously by the UN General Assembly requiring the UK to decolonise Gibraltar”
Naughty UK!
Mar 09th, 2013 - 05:21 am 0You should know that ONLY Argentina can distort and manipulate this issue.
Territorial integrity ? tell that to Mexico re Texas and various other states and for that matter Canada and Alaska or is the law about to re draw the world map for the sake of Territorial integrity
Mar 09th, 2013 - 05:39 am 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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