MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Resolution 2065 on Falklands: United Nations 'royally deceived' 50 years ago

MLA Summers said Resolution 2065 was based on a series of lies, deceptions and half truths put to UN by the then Argentine Ambassador José María Ruda.

The United Nations was “royally deceived”, said Falkland Islands Member of Legislative Assembly Mike Summers in response to Argentina celebrating the 50th anniversary of a UN resolution that recognised the existence of a sovereignty dispute over the Falklands.

 The resolution also indicates that the Falklands is framed in a colonial situation, which should be solved taking into consideration a goal of eliminating all forms of colonialism.

The resolution invites the parties to find a peaceful solution to the problem and take into consideration the interests of the inhabitants of the Islands.

MLA Summers said Resolution 2065 was based on a series of lies, deceptions and half truths put to the UN by the then Argentine Ambassador José María Ruda.

He said there were at least 12 untruths in the statement and they had been repeated time and again by succeeding Argentine politicians.

MLA Summers reiterated a statement he put to the last Decolonization Committee including noting that the Ambassador had claimed Spanish sovereignty was settled over the Falklands because Spain made an express reservation of its sovereignty in the, Treaty of 22 January 1771.

MLA Summers said: “It was not; both Britain and Spain reserved their positions on sovereignty in that treat.” Dr Ruda had also claimed that Britain expelled the Argentine population from the Falklands in 1833.

But, “It did not,” noted MLA Summers, “Britain removed an illegal military garrison, but persuaded a number of Argentine and Uruguayan civilians to stay.”

Argentina claimed the Argentine inhabitants resisted the British ‘invaders’: “They did not; but welcomed and sought assistance to escape the failed Vernet enterprise and stayed in the Islands.”

They claimed that Britain replaced the Argentine inhabitants with British subjects: “They did not,” responds MLA Summers, “many of the Argentine civilians stayed on, and over many years were supplemented by new settlers from several other European and South American countries, including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the UK and Scandinavia.”

The Argentina Ambassador claimed there had been no international agreement to confirm Britain’s possession of the Falklands and that Argentina had never accepted Britain’s possession of the Falklands.

MLA Summers said: “The Convention of Settlement of 1849, ratified by both Governments in 1850, confirmed there were no outstanding disputes between the
two countries. Argentina accepted British sovereignty.”

Argentina says “Falkland Islanders were a temporary British population,” but MLA Summers described this as perhaps, “the greatest of all deceptions, since we can now demonstrate nine or perhaps 10 generations of settlers from 61 different ethnic backgrounds.”

He said Resolution 2065 had been thoroughly discredited by history: “It was consigned to the bin in 1982 when Argentina invaded and made completely irrelevant by the referendum of 2013”.

MLA Summers described it as “unfortunate,” that the new government had decided that it wished to push forward again the resolution, “but I think I would just like to reiterate from our perspective the way is open for the new government of Argentina to find a better and more cooperative way of living together in the South West Atlantic“.

”That doesn’t mean, never has meant and never will mean that we are prepared to discuss sovereignty of the Falkland Islands”.(PN)