MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands: optimism about identification of the unknown Argentine soldiers
An Argentine delegation involved in human rights that in early May visited the Falkland Islands is optimistic about the possibility of advancing in the identification of the remains of Argentine soldiers buried as unknown in unmarked graves at the Darwin cemetery. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesHold the front page ..... An Argentinian that actually accepts that the islanders exist and that they have a government AND that they do not want to get involved in Argentinian internal affairs.... he is bound to win a one way ticket to a government sponsored parachute jump, without the parachute...
May 21st, 2013 - 07:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0So - the Falklanders have 'authorities” :-)
May 21st, 2013 - 10:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0The bodies are being used for political purposes by the argentine government - they should be returned to argentina for identification and reburial.
May 21st, 2013 - 11:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 3Eddieposted
May 21st, 2013 - 12:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I believe if you delve far enough back you will find that was offered but Argentina declined saying that they were 'home'.
I believe you are correct though in that 'they' are being used for political purposes, despicable!
Eddieposted and Biguggy, I believe that the group from the Chaco really have no political axe to grind. They truly represent the relatives of the Argentine war dead, and wish to return their identity.
May 21st, 2013 - 12:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is absolutely NO doubt at all that CFK and her gang are using these young men and their relatives as political amunition, but there really are “good” Argentines, we are not all despicable thugs like the kirchnerist plague!!!!!
Just send the poor fellows back home, then Argentina can ID them to KFC cold stony heart's content. The British should have done than from the start rather than let a succession of foul Argie regimes continue to abuse the fallen who have suffered enough.
May 21st, 2013 - 01:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@1, 2 Argie papers refer to them as “British” authorities, so it's not much of an advance.
May 21st, 2013 - 02:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@5 It doesn't really matter whether this group from Chaco has any political agenda or not. It's the way it will be used.
@6 I agree. Argies like to go on about “their war dead in their soil”. Well it isn't their soil and never has been. And Falklanders shouldn't accept a load of argie “scientists” trampling around making it up as they go along. So dig whatever's left up, shove it in a container and ship it. Then there won't be any argie invaders buried in British Falklands soil!
@7
May 21st, 2013 - 02:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why should Argentina recognize your “internal administrative” system, which is needlessly complicated no one in the world understands it anyway (Britain, UK, Great Britain, England... what are you?), when your country refuses to recognize Argentina is a federal state?
@TroLLey_to_Truth, Do us all a favour and hire a boat preferably in a sea worthy condition and a few hundred black bin liners and take the corpses back where they came from.
May 21st, 2013 - 02:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You've yet to pick your own corpses from Normandy 70 years later and let the French build an amusement park or a good bourguoise beach resort on prime real estate, and you are buggered by this?
May 21st, 2013 - 02:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@TroLLey_to_Truth The ignorant peasant that you are I think you will find the French are more than happy to let the commonwealth and other country's dead rest in peace in there soil but lets be honest It was an effort to even send back the living to Argentina if my memory serves me right
May 21st, 2013 - 03:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 010 TroLLey_to_Truth (#)
May 21st, 2013 - 03:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0May 21st, 2013 - 02:42 pm
The Brits, Canadians, Indians, Australians, New Zeelanders, South Africans and the Yanks have their compatriots buried in French soil from 1914-1918, in other words almos 100 years and the French have not complained about it!!!!!!!
So why do the Brits bitch about about the Falklands cemetery? Thank you all for proving my point of their racism and intolerance.
May 21st, 2013 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@TroLLey_to_Truth They have every right to dislike a bunch of THUGS rotting in there soil have you forgot these bastards invaded a peaceful small community being the cowards that Argentines obviously are and take note of the words SMALL COMMUNITY
May 21st, 2013 - 04:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 013 TroLLey_to_Truth (#)
May 21st, 2013 - 04:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0May 21st, 2013 - 03:57 pm
Maybe its because in the Falklands ours was an invading force, whereas in France and Belgium the Brits, Commonwealth and US troops were liberators!!!!!
Then how about Britain going to Isla Gorriti and taking their corpses out of there? That's where they buried many of their dead in the 1806 and 1807.
May 21st, 2013 - 04:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hint: The british were not “liberating” anything in that embarrassing defeat!
Racist and intolerant.
May 21st, 2013 - 04:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Q. What do you call someone who sends a young man into a war and then denies him his name, when he gives his life in that war?
A. Argentinian.
Fact-Argentine officers sexually abused young Argentine conscripts
May 21st, 2013 - 04:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Fact-Argentine officers starved and ill treated Argentine conscripts
WHAT A LOVELY BUNCH YOU ARE or are you going to blame The Junta the very people you were praising and waving your flags at when the invasion started
1806 1807 again.
May 21st, 2013 - 04:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Okay you can have that! You being a contemporary expert on embarrassing defeats that have occurred in living memory, you should now what your talking about.
Comment removed by the editor.
May 21st, 2013 - 04:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ TroLLey_to_Truth If you can find a boat in Argentine waters that actually floats you are more than welcome to go remove them Argentine thugs if I had been in charge you would have been given 48 hours notice to remove them or they would have been dumped at sea
May 21st, 2013 - 04:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@13 - “So why do the Brits bitch about about the Falklands cemetery?”
May 21st, 2013 - 04:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They don't, the Argentine regime does.
Am I reading this right Argentines want The Islanders to step forward who bear witness to torture and ill treatment from Argentine officers towards Argentine soilders?? WOW seriously, they have a nerve
May 21st, 2013 - 05:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 023 andy65 (#)
May 21st, 2013 - 05:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0May 21st, 2013 - 05:04 pm
I believe quite a few Islanders witnessed Argentine officers torturing their conscript troops. It would be marvellous if some of them would act as witnesses in legal proceedings against those criminals.
A nephew of mine who died in the Islands was possibly tortured to death by an NCO, according to some of his fellow conscripts, although none of them would bare witness against the alledged killer!!!!!
Both his parents a now dead so I don't think anything will ever come of his case.
@8 Not our problem.
May 21st, 2013 - 06:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@10 But you see, the French were, and are, grateful that we went over and destroyed the nazi invaders. Falklanders, I gather, feel much the same way.
@13 Might it be because your faggots were unwelcome invaders? You know, being Spanish.
@16 Not “your” problem. It was, after all, Spanish territory. Why don't you ask the Spanish? Alternatively, you could ask the government of Uruguay. Will you be digging up the Uruguayans, the Germans, the (proper) Americans, the Russians and the Dutch as well?
Simon68, I was more shocked that these people wanted to involve the islanders as witnesses after all they don't exist so would be rather difficult getting a statement from someone who does not exist in the eyes of the people requesting help Unbelievable.
May 21st, 2013 - 06:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Aparently trolly=
May 21st, 2013 - 06:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0is off his trolly lol.
The unknown Argentinian soldiers who died in the FALKLANDS war could not be identified because it was the Argentinian Junta that sent them to war without dogtags ( a circular disc with name and number for identification in the event of a soldier dying in battle ) so really is down to Argentina to identify their dead. Why did the Junta send their soldiers into battle without the essential dogtags?
May 21st, 2013 - 06:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have no way of knowing but I suspect that many Argentinian 'relatives' may well be disappointed by what is found in those 'unknown', graves.
May 21st, 2013 - 07:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As I understand it quite often only 'small pieces' are buried and indeed pieces of one individual may be in more than one grave.
16 - Trolley..blah...blah
May 21st, 2013 - 08:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think you will find those British buried in 1806 and 1807 were fighting a war of liberation - liberation of Switzerland, Netherlands and Northern Italy which were occupied by France and their Spanish allies (puppet state) which as part of Spain the colonies of Buenos Aires and the River Plate should take their share of responsibility, you were as part of Spain shipping resources to Europe for Spain and France to use in their war of conquest and imperial expansion, which they of course lost despite having a 5-1 numerical advantage over the British and their allies.
How did end - France forced to return to its old boundaries and the leader of your alliance Emperor Bonepart slung in jail. The King of Spain - Joseph Bonepart was force to flee to French ally the USA taking the Spanish crown with him. Britian and its allies liberated not only the Netherlands, Switzerland and Northern Italy but also Spain by removing its puppet King and their actions also led to the liberation of Venzuela and eventually the other Spanish colonies including the colony in Buenos Aires and the sorrounding areas.
So not only was Margaret Thatcher critical to Argentinas liberation from the Junta, Wellington and the British were also critical to the independence of the Spanish possessions in what is now Latin America including Argentina.
TWIMC
May 21st, 2013 - 09:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I count one, two, three, four, five English turnips wanting to remove the Argentinean dead from Malvinas….....
Not even Johnny Turk would ever dream about removing those 22,000 Tommy, 9,000 Aussie and 3,000 Kiwi dead infidel invaders from Gallipoli…..
It only shows the moral fiber English Turnips are made of……
Oh Nostrils, look what you have become.
May 21st, 2013 - 09:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nothing!
TTT - It is only Argentina who“bitches” about Darwin Cemetery, We Islanders RESPECT it and the lads who have lain there at peace for 30 years - their God knows where each one of them is buried and his name.
May 21st, 2013 - 09:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Think you will find there are also German War Cemeteries in France etc - slight little difference- after those wars Germany dropped its territorial claims! I visited an Italian one in Northern UK a few years ago- it is well cared for by the locals there. Clue - Italy is now an ally and friend of UK.
Same for the I presume reasonably cared for graves of British dead in 1805 and 07 - UK was attacking Spain-Spanish Sov Territory then -not Argentina as it did not exist!
Oh - and it was Argentine Soldiers who REFUSED to assist in identifying their own dead to the British after the battles in 1982. So that is indeed why so many are unknown - because Argentines who knew who they were - refused to name them.
The same Argenina who reused all form of co-operation with UK after 1982 on what to do with their own dead. remember it was UK - and their Humanitarian Action that caused the Argentine dead to be collected up and given a formal Christian burial in 1983 - Argentina refused all contact.
TWIMC
May 21st, 2013 - 09:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“TWIMC
I count one, two, three, four, five English turnips wanting to remove the Argentinean dead from Malvinas….....
Not even Johnny Turk would ever dream about removing those 22,000 Tommy, 9,000 Aussie and 3,000 Kiwi dead infidel invaders from Gallipoli…..
It only shows the moral fiber English Turnips are made of……”
Thank you for showing how mature countries such as Turkey, UK, Australia and New Zealand can deal with these matters in a way that respects the dead and improves ties and relations amongst our peoples.
Pity Argentina can't do the same.
So nice when you actually criticise your own government for a change.
I have, from the beginning of this fiasco with TMBOA and the bodies left on the Falklands, thought that the only solution is to return the bodies to the argie mainland for them to do what they want with them.
May 21st, 2013 - 09:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There will be of course accusations of ‘suspicious wounds’, probably a single pistol shot to the head that will inevitably be laid at Britain’s doors even though they would clearly be of the Juntas making.
But the rest of the world apart from SA will know the truth of the matter and the Falklands will be rid of this shameful Argentine political football which continues to this day with the damage to the little dolly.
I do of course have sympathy with the bereaved but they have a bigger cross to bear in the form of TMBOA.
Call me heartless I have no sorry for these people cast your minds back 31 years ago remember those scenes of Argentines dancing in the streets waving there flags kissing the juntas ass,you get what you vote for there is no one else to blame.
May 21st, 2013 - 10:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0HEY McDOD
May 21st, 2013 - 10:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Bought those shares yet?
Think - like, I suspect the majority here- I am happy for the dead to remain where they have lain in peace for 30 years- at Darwin Cemetery.
May 22nd, 2013 - 01:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0And:
Like what I am pretty sure is also the majority wish of Islanders - IF the unknown are to be exhumed for DNA Testing in Argentina - then yes OK - ALL will be exhumed and returned to Argentina.
Then all of those boys can be returned to their families - and no more politics for silly Argentine Politicians to keep on playing! And you can then refuse overflight to Lan if you like without affecting your next of kin visits. You could face opposition from the Arg Veterans though who VALUE their trips here to bury ghosts and put minds at rest.
Interesting chat today with a local lady who met one of the Chaco Vets last week on Wirelss Ridge where he had fought- he asked her if he could shake her hand person-to-person and say sorry for all the stupidity and death on both sides - all caused by a drunkard President.
They shook hands and agreed it was a pointless and stupid affair your late President of 1982 started.
Oh- dont come the about dictators- he was the Argentine President like it or lump it - and millions of Argentines applauded him
in April 1982.
@33 and 34
May 22nd, 2013 - 07:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Or Cannock Chase German Cemetery just north of Birmingham. Most of the 5000 German casualties of WW1 & 2 who died in the UK are buried in a beautiful and fascinating cemetery that is immaculately kept by the CWGC. They died here and should stay here. Britain and Germany will remain close allies either way.
@31 - “Not even Johnny Turk would ever dream about removing those 22,000 Tommy, 9,000 Aussie and 3,000 Kiwi dead infidel invaders from Gallipoli…..”
May 22nd, 2013 - 07:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0Well if the Empire's successor states used them to claim ownership of Istanbul and the Bosporus things might well be very different.
@31 You are quite welcome to keep your dead in Malvinas. That would be in Cordoba. However, these particular remains are in the soil of the British Falklands. Since, as you and your government regularly prove, argies have NO moral fibre, it is hardly appropriate for you to comment on ours from your twisted perspective. See, wherever British remains are buried, we don't promptly trumpet that the entire territory is ours. But, despite all the evidence to the contrary, you do. You don't even have the courtesy to call our territory by the name we gave it long before your “country” existed.
May 22nd, 2013 - 11:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0So when you poxed mangelwurzels finally get around to dragging yourselves into the 20th century, it's obviously beyond you to get to the 21st, admit that the Islands belong to Britain and the Falklanders, use their correct name and quit your ridiculous “claim”, you can expect no change in our attitude. View it as consideration on our part. Sending the remains to argieland would enable you to carry out as many tests as you want for as long as you want. You could build a whole temple for them. Your own people would save all the money they have to spend getting to the Falkland Islands and back. They would be able to “visit” more often. We would not be contributing to your delusions. The space on the Falkland Islands could be put to some useful purpose. Benefits all round!
”There were other points addressed at the meeting, one of them referred to witnesses of torture incidents committed by Argentine military officers against their own soldiers, but “this was left to the people to decide”.
May 22nd, 2013 - 06:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think you will find that the torture incidents were committed by NCOs and not officers. How many officers were on the front line?
@42 Tim
May 22nd, 2013 - 09:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0After the first shot back at them by the Brits: NOT ONE OF THEM.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!