MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands ‘is about people; it is not about rocks; about people self determining their future’
“The Falkland Islands is about people; it is not about rocks. It is about people’s right to lead lives as they wish to lead them. As people in Argentina can: to live in peace, prosperity. It is about making their choices and leading their lives and having their home as an expression of their wishes, not somebody else’s wishes. They should be able to self-determine their own futures”. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules‘It‘s not about rocks, it’s about people’
Apr 25th, 2013 - 04:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0Is he talking about Chagos?
Marcos, we had the largest empire on the planet and in most cases we have resolved the issues where we were present. They were resolved by self-determination. Ultimately the Chagos Islands will be resolved too.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0You really do need to think about the hypocricy of your comments when you consider what happened in South America by your own ancestors and swept under the carpet by your current regimes.
Well said Britworker.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0I find it dishonest and juvinile to compare the Chagos to the Falklands.
@3 Escoses Doido (#)
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:33 am
I just find Malvinistas juvenile and dishonest.
Isn't it funny how the most vociferous critics of the British government's actions on Chagos are Argentines salivating to do the same to the Falklanders?
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1 Obviously not - Diego Garcia is a coral atoll (so doesn't have a great deal of rocks for it not to be about).
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0The treatment of the Chagossians was monsterous and should never have happened, even to do a significant favour for a close and powerful ally.
Are you suggesting that the best way to atone for this monsterous act by doing the exact same monsterous thing to people on a different group of islands in a different ocean to appease a borderline bipolar in charge of a basket case of a country, who hates us?
And have you noticed, an interview with an ambassador that manages to not inflame anything. Ambush Alicia should take note...
Ah Marcos, how this article must compound your deep and acute sense of embarrassment at Timermans mono-policy agenda and toddler level antics. Off to bed now, the grown ups are talking.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0Marcos, now trot off and get marketing those Big Issues there's a good troll. And get those warts fixed, it's free on the NHS.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 09:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0I respectfully disagree with the Ambassador.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 09:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0It is about the ROCKs and the PEOPLE
Both of which are part of a British Oversea Territory and have NOTHING whatsoever to do with Argentina.
Argentina have no claim and never did.
They have two two-month periods in history in 1832 and 1982, and those can be summed up with the following adjectives:
Murder
Rape
Cowardice
Theft
Cowardice
Defecation
Death
It is astonishing that a country wishes to remind itself of this national humiliation.
@1 So many times you have been told. But it appears that you don't have the brain to comprehend. One last time. The Chagos Archipelago was owned by a private Mauritian company. The people there were their contract workers. Previously, they were slaves imported by France. When the UK bought the islands, responsibility for the people remained with the Mauritian company. The company abandoned them. In humanitarian spirit, the British government gave the Mauritian government money to resettle the people. In Mauritian spirit, the Mauritian government stole the money and abandoned the people. Subsequently, in humanitarian spirit, the British government has given the people more money to enable proper resettlement. The subject has now been CLOSED!
Apr 25th, 2013 - 11:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0I understand that you have to find something to help you justify your genocides, your murders of innocent people, your invasions of peaceful countries, your corrupt, criminal, fraudulent behaviour, your general inability to act with anything even approaching maturity, but you should try for something that isn't so easily debunked. But then argies have never been known for their brain, have they? Just look at what you told your conscripts 31 years ago. First that they were going on exercise. Second that they were going to “liberate” the “Malvinas”. What a shock it was for them when they found that the Islanders didn't want, or need, to be liberated. That, as far as the Islanders were concerned, they were unwanted, invading, foreign enemies. As you still are!
What a difference in attitudes. We send a diplomat to BA, they send us a loud mouthed fish-wife !
Apr 25th, 2013 - 11:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0@Clyde15;
Apr 25th, 2013 - 01:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0C'moan now - yer giving fish-wifes a bad name there! (ha ha)
Oh man, The Rock is so sad right now that he just cancelled filming the Scorpion Thatcher in the Malvinas! :)
Apr 25th, 2013 - 02:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@11
Apr 25th, 2013 - 02:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are not required to send diplomats. Especially to a country where no one would even notice if your country had sent one.
Everything he mentioned about ARG-UK relations happened 100+ years ago. Different era. Back then we were friends and traded.
The world changes.
@14;
Apr 25th, 2013 - 03:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So today we are what exactly? (in your opinion)
Of course it's about people.....the people of Argentina....
Apr 25th, 2013 - 04:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's not about occupying people. It is about the sovereignty of the territory.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 04:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Knows that everyone including of course the United Nations Organization and the country usurper, England.
#17
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thank you for that reply. The English are the usurpers.
That means the Falklanders of Scottish descent are the legal owners of the islands. As the English are our close friends. we give them leave to live there in perpetuity - and also any descendants of other nationalities who accept our sovereignty - even Argies who denounce their heritage from Argentina.
There you are , problem solved, now go away you silly person
“You are not required to send diplomats. Especially to a country where no one would even notice if your country had sent one.”
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Exactly, which is why most Argentine diplomatic missions are a waste of time, space and money, and nobody abroad would notice if Buenos Aires closed them all and replaced them with honorary consuls.
@17
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“It is about the sovereignty of the territory.”
Yes, which is British.
The United Provinces (Argentina did not exist til 1853)usurped that sovereignty and were asked to leave.
Argentina usurped the territory in 1982 and were asked to leave but stupidly they did not so got their asses well kicked.
And in the future Argentina will try again, and again and again to usurp the British sovereignty of the Falklnd Islands and again and again and again, they will get their asses kicked like the scratched vinyl record that recurringly sounds g'dum, g'dum, g'dum etc.
@15
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I've said it many times, we are enemies. We are your enemy in the Falklands (which I don't agree with pursuing), and you are our enemy in everything else (tried to invade us three times, want to shut Argentina out of Antarctica, insult Argentina at the Olympics, work to undermine Argentina economically, etc, etc).
@19
I have always said we should close our embassies, starting with London, Washington, Madrid, and Berlin.
@21
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”work to undermine Argentina economically, etc, etc).”
Argentina exports more to the UK than the UK exports to Argentina and British aid helps Argentina-this is not undermining Argentina, it's giving Argentina a branch to grab onto.
70 million in aid, woohoo, what a branch you retard.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 05:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And it's not even direct aid it's just redirected money you give to int organizations.
You also traded oil with Libya for a long time, and they actually bombed your country. So not surprising you have no morals and trade with your enemies.
The Foreign Office and its emissaries, including Ambassador Freeman in Buenos Aires, do their level best to ignore General Assembly resolution 2065 (XX) Question of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas. This states uncompromisingly that the inhabitants are a “population”. So defined they are not entitled to the right of self-determination. So all the Ambassador's carefully chosen words are hot air.
Apr 25th, 2013 - 06:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0With respect, Ambassador Freeman, the Falkland Islands is about territory. It is not about people
#21
Apr 25th, 2013 - 06:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's nice to know we are doing something right
Still awaiting a reply about hating all Europeans including current immigrants to Argentina. My fifth attempt - still cogitating ?
“ With respect, Ambassador Freeman, the Falkland Islands is about territory.”
OK the territory belongs to the UK and we gift it to the Islanders. Problem solved, no need for discussion and goodbye.
@24 Devolverislas
Apr 25th, 2013 - 06:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The UN refers to “all people” having these fundamental rights, the “population” is comprised of “people” all of them with rights.
To argue that being defined as “a population” means they have no rights, is not only ridiculous it is what the UN exists to prevent.
Same as statements like “It’s about territory, it is not about people”. Drang nach osten, anyone?
@17, @24
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Isn't it curious how the only population to believe in the notion of an implanted population with no rights, is the implanted population of Argentina?
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the UN has created a legal right of self-determination with specific reference to the populations of NSGTs. If the Malvinistas want to forestall this right, what they should be doing is clamouring for the removal of the Falklands from the C24 lists, as the Chinese did for Hong Kong and Macau in the 70s.
That would make them look pretty silly of course, but they should surely be used to that by now.
Apparently this 1000,000 people [argentines]
Apr 25th, 2013 - 07:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Have been advised by CFK to make their way to the isle of white,
And after 2 years attempt to claim sovereignty.
Watch it,
It may be rubbish, but on the other hand, given their reputation anything’s possible
Lol.
.
@26, @27
Apr 25th, 2013 - 10:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Of course the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, as a “population”, enjoy individual rights. But the United Nations does not recognize them as a “ people” and so denies them collective rights. The right of self-determination, as cited in article 1(2) of the United Nations Charter, is a collective right.
@Marcos Alejandro For months you have dodged the question WHEN WILL YOU BE LEAVING LONDON TO RETURN TO ARGENTINA???? HOW STABLE DOES ARGEBNTINA NEED TO BE????
Apr 25th, 2013 - 11:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As you rightly said Timerman: the “falklanders” do not exist. There British implanted in Argentina. And if we think that even now U.K. no reports the number of “falklanders” born in the islands in the last census, will they are disappearing?. Not that those born in our islands are not implanted, but now implanted even not born in the islands. We have business-agents (useful for the crown) as Sawle, get rich stealing Argentine resources. We (never forget) to NATO. Great base in Monte Agradable (this reminds me of Diego Garcia: a war, a base. An expulsion of Ilois, another base).
Apr 25th, 2013 - 11:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But Freeman claims that such three parts: Two parts British and one Argentina. Very clever! An “governor” appointed by the crown.
But ultimately, it is true, the Falklands are people (and “rock” too) but those people are Argentines entitled to end of colonialism on its territory and entitled to its territorial integrity.
This type laugh: he says that the “referendo” took Latin American observers. What he no says, is that no Latin American government recognizes that theater assembled and much least the UN, that when it favors, is the divine word but when not, is ridiculous, and the singing tests: 40 resolutions ignored.
31-Jose
Apr 26th, 2013 - 01:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0As yet the UN - The UN General secretary and Security Council - has not taken a position on the referendum nor been asked to.
No South American Govt has even been asked by the Islands to take a position!
Government persons in several SA Countriues though are saying to our Govt people - that it has to be taken into account.One SA Country even invited an elected member of our Govt to address their Congress - now that is a pretty good recognition of the existence of the Islands Govt.
What geat NATO base are you on about and where in mainland South America is Monte Agradable and what is its relevance?
And who was expelled?
Yep - agree - we are a people and we ended old fashioned Colonialism years ago!
We had old fashioned Colonialism rammed down our throats from 2nd April to 14th June 1982 - and never ever again thankyou!
We have moved on since then - sadly our neighbours are still buried in an outdated irrelevant past of vitriole and agression - they still demand the right to impose the same type old old fashioned Colonialism on us that they tried in 1982!
19th century Colonialism - when a Govt enforces its rule over a people of a place who do not want to be ruled by that Govt.
Since my family have been here since mid 1840s and nobody was or had been evicted from the lands the settled on - please explain how I am an “implant”
yet a family who settled in Tierra del Fuego or Patagonia and displaced ( and often helped kill off) the natural population are I assume ,not “implanted”?
“I have always said we should close our embassies, starting with London, Washington, Madrid, and Berlin.”
Apr 26th, 2013 - 02:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0But not Rome, seeing as 60 per cent of Argentines are from Italy!
32
Apr 26th, 2013 - 02:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0This is a very small -but very important example- that before your “old” family, they had someone ... and she is a pretty good Malvinense...
http://ar.noticias.yahoo.com/la-primera-malvina-argentina.html
@31
Apr 26th, 2013 - 08:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0“There British implanted in Argentina”
Most Argentinians are Europeans implanted in Argentina.
And?
@29 InvadirIslas
Apr 26th, 2013 - 08:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Unfortunately for this thesis, there is no definition under international law of what constitutes a 'people', no notion of an 'implanted population', and most definitely no notion of an 'implanted population that has no rights' because they are inconvenient to Argetina. All that exists only in the wishful thinking of the Malvinaverse. When you did attempt at the UN in 2008 to introduce a resolution limiting the right of self-determination in cases of territorial disputes, you failed miserably. The only support you got came from other implanted populations of South America, nutters (Iran, North Korea), dictatorships (Syria, Belarus), and a few others who reject self-determination for their own reasons (Russia, China). Nobody but yourselves cares very much that your usurping rapists and murderers were politely sent home nearly 2 centuries ago.
As for resolution 2065, this simply calls for a peaceful resolution to the dispute. Nobody could possibly object to that, apart from country called 'the junta' which we are supposed to believe no longer exists, although its rhetoric, attitudes, and disdain for human rights and the founding principles of the UN have been inherited by Argentina. Which is doomed to fail for precisely that reason
@21 JT
Apr 26th, 2013 - 09:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0To quote you “(tried to invade us three times”
Surely as you said, that happened a hundred plus years ago?
To quote you again “the world changes”
Please try to be coherant in your ramblings JT.
Jose, Devolverislas - Do you two honestly believe Argentina will ever gain control of the Falklands? How do you imagine this would happen?
Apr 26th, 2013 - 09:33 am - Link - Report abuse 031 José Malvinero
Apr 26th, 2013 - 09:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0Oh pipe down, you boring person. If I'm 'implanted' then so are you. WTF does 'implanted' mean anyway? Nothing. We all arrived in the Falklands the same way you arrived in Argentina.
And where the hell is 'Monte Agradable'? Surely you can't be talking about MPA? In what way is that similar to Diego Garcia? No-one was expelled to build it, quite the contrary, we welcome it. And it never would have been built at all if you hadn't invaded. You don't like it being there? Well tough, it's your fault, so man up and get on with things.
Are you really saying that the expulsion of your illegal squatting rabble of rapists and murderers 200 years ago is in some way similar to the expulsion of the Chagossians? What a shocking thing to say.
@ John Troll
Apr 26th, 2013 - 09:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Everything he mentioned about ARG-UK relations happened 100+ years ago. Different era. Back then we were friends and traded. ”
“ and you are our enemy in everything else (tried to invade us three times,”
Pretty sure that happened 100+ years ago. D- must do better.
Tbf we pretty much had ago at everywhere we wouldnt want to feel left out now would we?
Apr 26th, 2013 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0please see programme about Argentina's “economic miracle”
Apr 26th, 2013 - 10:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxATngnqgv8
@34 Jose
Apr 26th, 2013 - 11:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0So a German that was on the the islands with the permission of the British government had a daughter, that's nice.
@36
Apr 26th, 2013 - 11:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0On the point of substance: - population versus people. The General Assembly made this distinction in the case of the Falkland Islanders. That in itself constitutes a precedent in international law.
@44
Apr 26th, 2013 - 12:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The use of one term rather than another, with no attempt to define either or the distinction between them hardly supports your claim that the UNGA has voted to overturn the fundamental principle of the UN Charter just to please Argentina. And especially not when the same UNGA has explicitly rejected an overt Argentine attempt to limit that principle. What you are suggesting is no more than a Malvinista fantasy with no legal basis. But do keep it up. The more you go round claiming that colonial inheritance gives you the right in the name of decolonization to colonize the territory of a people without rights, the more you expose yourselves for what you are.
@43
Apr 26th, 2013 - 12:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A German that was on the islands with the permission of the British had a daughter. Neither the German nor the daughter were on the islands in 1832 when Mestevier was murdered nor in 1833 when Britian evicted the 2 month militia of the UP.
Where was the German and his daughter...and who had he left in charge in 1831 when he left? What was his nationality and what happened to him?
The German left Matthew Brisbane (a Brit or for “think” a Scotsman) in charge, and Brisbane was murdered by Rivero in an act celebrated by the Argentines as an anti-British act.
So, either Vernet did not have authority over the islands or he passed it to Brisbane who in turn both accepted and welcomed Captain Onslow and the British.
I am happy with either.
@16 No-one important or relevant then!
Apr 26th, 2013 - 12:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@17 “Sovereignty is the quality of having independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make laws that rests on a political fact for which no pure legal definition can be provided. In theoretical terms, the idea of ”sovereignty“, historically, from Socrates to Thomas Hobbes, has always necessitated a moral imperative on the entity exercising it.”
So “sovereignty” has to be exercised by “people”. And it is. By the people of the Falkland Islands and, on their behalf, by the people of Britain.
@21 Well, that's your choice. The Falkland Islands is a non-issue. They are ours. They have been for 323 years. And no, we don't want to shut argieland out of Antarctica. You can have any bit you want. As long as it isn't ours. Our “claim” was made in 1908. Yours, and Chile's, wasn't made until 1942 and 1940 respectively. After Hitler told you that he was going to win the war. But he didn't, did he? Here's what you do. You find a bit that's unclaimed, like Marie Byrd Land. Or a bit where the claim is defunct. Like New Swabia. That used to be claimed by your pals, Nazi Germany. You can have those.
Insult argieland at the Olympics? How? Were you there? Can't keep up with all these little penny-ante “countries” that turn up. But, hang on, didn't you start by insulting us with your dumb hockey player?
And you don't need us to undermine argieland economically. You are doing fine on that by yourselves!
@24 UN General Assembly resolution 2065 is NON-BINDING. Referring to it is, therefore, “hot air”. And whether it's about “people” or “territory”, they have something in common. They are OURS!
@29 What the UN “recognises” is up to the UN. The UK recognises it and that's all you need to remember.
@31 More pidgin drivel.
@44 Poor fool. Nothing, get that NOTHING, that the UN says or does constitutes “international law”.
@ 21 Please enlighten us - what are the three occasions when Britain invaded Argentina? And please don't mention the two occasions when the Spanish colonial city of Buenos Aires was invaded, unsuccessfully, by British troop in the early 1800s nor, indeed, the trade embargo of the 1840s. These were NOT invasions!
Apr 26th, 2013 - 01:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Furthermore, if you wish to claim the retaking of British territory in the South Arlantic in 1982 after the illegal invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina in April of that year, then that, too, will be a false claim.
President Reagan once called the Falklands, “a little bunch of ice-cold rocks down there!”
Apr 26th, 2013 - 04:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If there are so many rocks, how come so many sheep are fed “down there?”
The “little bunch” have the largest surface of any island or archipelago in the Western Hemisphere, except for Cuba or Hispaniola.
Concerning the weather, in winter its never colder than in Washington, DC or London. So much for fantasies about the Falklands!
Philippe
“I have always said we should close our embassies, starting with London, Washington, Madrid, and Berlin.”
Apr 26th, 2013 - 07:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And open one in Pyongyang, where the Ambassador can compare notes with Kim Jong-un on brainwashing and cults of personality. His grandpa is still the country's President, despite having been dead for 19 years. Cristina should commission a Spanish version of this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmI2yDAyWYI
Fakland holdings is about pirates, thieves and british illegal aliens. Nothing new going on here move along people.
Apr 27th, 2013 - 05:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@49
Apr 28th, 2013 - 09:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“President Reagan once called the Falklands, “a little bunch of ice-cold rocks down there!””
He'd obviously never been there in the summer when failure to apply sunscreen results in your skin peeling off.
Too many generalisations about the FIs from people who have never been there.
Good points Phillipe.
@ 14 - John
Apr 29th, 2013 - 11:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Everything he mentioned about ARG-UK relations happened 100+ years ago. Different era.” - Yes, precisely. So why is there so much talk about alledged events in 1833 from Argentines?
@51
Apr 29th, 2013 - 11:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina is about pirates, thieves and Spanish illegal aliens. Nothing new going on here move along people.
That was an easy post to correct-thanks Hunted Pirate
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