MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas Families repudiate Peace Nobel Perez Esquivel on his return from Falklands

Malvinas Families strongly protested at Aeroparque arguing “this travelling party does not represent us” and accused them of wanting to politicize the Malvinas issue

Argentine Veterans and relatives of fallen in Malvinas had a surprise for Nobel Peace Prize Adolfo Perez Esquivel and his party of fourteen, including a founder of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, when they landed in Buenos Aires airport after spending a week in the Falkland Islands where they travelled with a “peace, dialogue and sovereignty” message to the Islanders.

 In effect, the Malvinas Families strongly protested at the party's arrival at Aeroparque arguing that “this travelling party does not represent us” and accused them of wanting to politicize the Malvinas issue and convert those who fell fighting the British military into “victims” of the last military dictatorship.

“They are not NNs, they are heroes of the homeland”, shouted the veterans to Perez Esquivel and the members of the Provincial Commission for Memory, an alleged group which promotes human rights. NNs in Argentina refers to the several thousands who disappeared during the last military dictatorship.

The referent Memory Commission, which includes Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Nora Cortinas travelled to the Falklands with the peace, dialogue and sovereignty message, but also to express support for the unknown fallen combatants identification process, recently agreed between UK, Argentina and Falklands government consent, with the International Red Cross.

The television images show a baffled Perez Esquivel by the repudiation event and Airport Security Police failing to contain the protesters who ended up entering to make their claim heard.

The most repudiated was Ernesto Alonso the ex-combatant and reference of CECIM, a Malvinas veterans group, whom they rebuked until arriving at his car. The cries accused him of being a “traitor” and “selling the honor of the country's heroes”.

Soldiers who lie in Falklands in unmarked graves, ARE NOT NN, they are soldiers of the Homeland who gave their lives for us all, said the communiqué of relatives.
Amid the chaos, Perez Esquivel pledged to receive Maria Fernanda Araujo, president of the Commission of Relatives of the Fallen. He also received a letter explaining their position.

“The soldiers who lie in Falklands in unmarked graves are heroe-soldiers, they gave their lives for us all. We all know their names, who they were, where they went, who they were with, who and why they fought against. Which we have very clear is who killed them: imperial troops of Great Britain and their NATO allies, ”says a part of the text.

The UK, Argentina, Falklands agreement under the responsibility of the International Red Cross is very clear: it will begin in a few months, no media coverage, a team of forensic experts with relatives' DNA samples will be doing the work, next of kin will be the first to be informed and the Darwin cemetery will be strictly out of bounds except for those involved in the task.

Those families wishing to have the identified remains returned to Argentina will be able, once the whole operation is complete. Darwin Cemetery holds 123 Argentine unknown soldiers plus over two hundred with a white cross and their name. Overlooking is an image of Argentina's Saint patron, Virgen de Lujan.

The Perez Esquivel group tried to establish contact with the Falkland Islanders but did not have much of a reply, which is understandable, a peace and love commission, supposedly of human rights defenders arrived in the Falklands calling the locals, “Malvinas inhabitants”, ruled by a “colonial government”; underlining that Malvinas are Argentine; denouncing “militarization” of the Falklands and ignoring an invitation to attend a briefing from the Falklands' elected government on the Islands, its people, economy, human rights and their right to self determination under the UN charter.

It was an attempt to set the stage for the Memory Commission's activities which before arriving in the Islands, the Falklands' government praised for their dedication to human rights, and thus expected and hoped that Falkland Islanders rights would not be overlooked.