MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Identification of Argentine soldiers buried in Falklands/Malvinas: Argentina/UK entrust Red Cross
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. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesNegotiations 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 - Link - Report abuse +5Lord Ton
Dec 10th, 2016 - 11:52 am - Link - Report abuse -7The Catering...?
Identification
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:06 pm - Link - Report abuse +5And what happens when identification is done, what then.??
Voice - 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 - Link - Report abuse +7Mr. Voice...
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:40 pm - Link - Report abuse -6:-)))))))))))))))))))))))
@B “....when identification is done, what then.??...”
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:50 pm - Link - Report abuse +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.
The identification precess is only the begining of a larger agreement. Argentina will drop their claim over the Falkland Islands and re return their war dead to their land by the end of 2018.
Dec 10th, 2016 - 03:06 pm - Link - Report abuse +5Quite correct re successive Arg Govts playing politics with the dea-ICRC made it very clear when in the Islands that each family- once remains identified - will be asked what is their wish- re-interred at Darwin - or returned to the family in Argentina - and it will be the WISH of the family that rules - not politics - and rightly so.
Dec 10th, 2016 - 04:34 pm - Link - Report abuse +5As I understand it Roger the Islands had no ambitions to “get” anything from this project. It is a strictly humanitarian endeavour.
Dec 10th, 2016 - 04:41 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Mr. Stillakelper (with a new nick)
Dec 10th, 2016 - 04:54 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Indeed... But you may as well enjoy the catering...
“..led by Ambassador María Teresa Kralikas, the Argentine Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic,”
Dec 10th, 2016 - 10:43 pm - Link - Report abuse +1What a pompous, unrealistic title. One wonders what the representatives of the UK, the FIG and the ICRC must think when the Argy representative turns up with a handle like that. Does Ambassador Kralikas have the grace to feel even a tinge of embarrassment?
The “Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands” part of her magnificent title is provocative because it implies Argentine ownership of the Falklands, it will also remind the Falkland Islanders of the suffering that they endured during Argentina’s brutal invasion of the Falklands in 1982.
The fact that the Falkland Islanders are willing to put this sort of arrogance to one side for the sake of the soldiers and their relatives speaks volume for their humanity. Compare this with Argentina’s arrogance and complete indifference to them and to the relatives of the fallen soldiers.
You are correct GALlamosa, however the Islanders did need to stop the Argentines acting like they owned the place :-)
Dec 10th, 2016 - 10:46 pm - Link - Report abuse +3@downunder
Dec 11th, 2016 - 01:11 am - Link - Report abuse +3“What a pompous, unrealistic title. ”
Indeed. But around here, when all else is lacking, or unattainable, they hand out titles. Some of my favourites include Assistant Federal Deputy Undersecretary for Pelagic Crustacean Preservation, National Coordinator for Lunar Oil Exploration, Chief Provincial Auditor for Soft-Drink Bottle Recyling Programmes, and Vice Minister for Special Austral Weekend Inspections of Yellow Plastic Septic Tanks of Less Than 10,000 Litre Capacity. Taken together, the cost for maintaining these offices is greater than 26 percent of the Argentine Gross National Product.
What about “Assistant Undersecretary to the Deputy Ambassador for the Discovery and Preservation of Blue Pampas”
Dec 11th, 2016 - 01:59 am - Link - Report abuse +1@Marti Llazo
Dec 11th, 2016 - 08:10 am - Link - Report abuse +3Who will sign the “agreement”? The FI and UK must object to anyone whose title includes the words “Malvinas Islands”.
@C
Dec 11th, 2016 - 02:52 pm - Link - Report abuse +2These agreements typically involve a certified translation so each party gets a reasonably similar version in the corresponding language. The haggling over the ways things come out in translation of course can sometimes scuttle the whole agreement purpose and so each side gets a draft and often many iterative drafts for weeks before the agreed-upon finals.
I have a Spanish-language copy of a 1989 joint Argentina-UK declaration in which the term Malvinas is used for the Spanish version and that was not an impediment. Even though Argentina can't come to call the islands the Falklands they have no trouble with the British names for some of the other parts of the archipelago and so their formal nomenclature indicates “Islas [...] Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur.” No matter; a rose by any other name still smells the same. Southern Argentina is full of British place-names, ranging from the “canal del Beagle” to cerro Bridges, canal Cook, cordillera Darwin, isla Gable, cerro Lawrence, canal Moat, the town of Fitzroy, and on and on.
These joint UK-AR agreements seem to have a standard boilerplate clause that basically says that nothing in the text shall be construed to affect the sovereignty positions of the principals.
It's always amusing to see that the diplomatic texts include an understanding of one party as “el Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte” but in media and public speaking here in Argentina it's rare to find anybody who doesn't say “los ingleses” when they mean los británicos.
Sooo....are you saying the UK is happy enough to have...
Dec 11th, 2016 - 03:48 pm - Link - Report abuse -1“Argentine Undersecretary for the Falkland Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic”
On the documents...
Although clearly the Argentines are deluded enough to think that dead Argentine soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands, amount to a sovereignty claim, surely if some relatives of the dead want them repatriated to the Argentine mainland, I can't understand the 'logic' (?) that Argentine soldiers shouldn't be buried on the mainland, regardless of whether they believe the Falklands are Argentine soil or not.
Dec 11th, 2016 - 04:53 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Is that saying that mainland Argentina is NOT Argentine soil?
If they believe that the Falklands are theirs (quite apart from their claim being totally bogus), what difference does it make if the soldiers are buried on the Islands or the mainland?
Surely they would be too, be buried in 'Argentine' soil, if they were moved to the mainland.?
If they believe that their territorial claim is diminished by some of their war dead being buried where the families can tend to the graves, it shows just what a non existent claim they have, as if it were a strong valid claim, they wouldn't need any dead Argentine soldiers buried on the Falkland Islands to make it valid.
There are many British war graves in foreign countries, none of which give the UK a valid claim on the countries the soldiers are buried in.
I'm not expecting any show of logic from Malvanistas on this, any day soon though .............
@ Voice “....Argentine Undersecretary....”
Dec 11th, 2016 - 06:51 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Argentina can invent as many vacuous offices, imaginary cantons, gossamer prefectures, contrived directorates, fictitious districts, and similar for the archipelago, and fund them all on borrowed money along with their embossed stationery. Just as they can spend millions on laughably worthless maps with fanciful place-names. But all they really accomplish is making the country look pompously bureaucratic, endlessly deluded, and frankly sillier than a squirrel at a Rottweiler convention. Argentina might just as well indulge their diurnal fantasies on their territorial claims to Glovania, West Berzerkistan, and the disputed provinces of the Lauranian Republic. You simply cannot buy better entertainment than that which is provided by the trappings of Argentine nationalism.
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