MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Identification of Argentine soldiers buried in Falklands/Malvinas: Argentina/UK entrust Red Cross
The talks were chaired by ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart 
Ambassador María Teresa Kralikas, the Argentine Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic 
Ambassador Julian Braithwaite, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva Delegations from Argentina and the United Kingdom on Friday agreed, in principle, on the mandate that they will jointly entrust to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to carry out the identification of Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin cemetery on the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.
According to the official release from ICRC, the delegations also agreed next steps in a number of areas relating to this sensitive humanitarian matter. These included the potential timing and scope of the project, the identification procedures and other details, such as logistical arrangements and the selection of laboratories for DNA sample testing.
The ICRC has every confidence that the agreement will be formalized by the respective governments at the earliest opportunity.
The talks were chaired by ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart, who welcomed the delegations – led by Ambassador María Teresa Kralikas, the Argentine Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, and Ambassador Julian Braithwaite, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva – to the ICRC's headquarters.
Mr Stillhart extended his thanks on behalf of the ICRC to the delegations for their commitment to the identification process. He said that the discussions represented “a crucial step forward in the effort to give names to the unidentified soldiers, and bring solace to their families.”
The aim of this strictly humanitarian endeavour is to identify as many of the Argentine soldiers buried in the cemetery as possible. The process is expected to get under way in mid 2017.
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Read all commentsVoice - you are such a tit. LOL Still, could be worse, you could be Scottish, and then you'd think that sheep's bits are “catering.”
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:18 pm +7@B “....when identification is done, what then.??...”
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:50 pm +6There has been talk of having identified remains re-labeled. Basically, change the headstone if the family representatives so desire.
Apparently the UK/FI governments had indicated an interest even before the remains had even stopped twitching that those bodies be sent back to Argentina, to tidy up the islands a bit. In fact there were representations by the UK that the bodies had been interred in such a manner that removal and repatriation could be readily accomplished. For political purposes the Argentine governments have refused to consider this, even though some of the families had indicated that they wanted that solution. Basically yet another example of Argentine nationalist politics trumping their residents' human rights.
Negotiations naturally require compromise and quid pro quos. So Argentina got two forensic experts on the ICRC team - what did the Islanders get?
Dec 10th, 2016 - 05:13 am +5Commenting for this story is now closed.
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