MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' Humanitarian Plan to identify Argentine soldiers remains extended

The Argentine military cemetery close Darwin where so far the remains in buried 114 graves have been identified

Argentina, United Kingdom and the Red Cross International Committee with the consent of the Falklands Islands have agreed to extend the Humanitarian Plan of identifying remains buried at the Argentine military cemetery close Darwin.

Argentina's Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Secretary, Sergio Avruj made the announcement particularly referred to a grave which apparently was supposed to hold the remains of three unknown combatants but has proved that is not the case.

Arvuj twitted that the Humanitarian Plan will attempt to recognize grave C.1.10 which holds the remains of Gendarmerie second lieutenant Julio Ricardo Sanchez and the remains of three other combatants fallen during the 1982 conflict.

The Argentine official said the Sanchez family had granted permission to exhume the grave. Apparently the existence of graves with multiple remains has been a recurrent issue among Malvinas next of kin and Veterans.

After the conflict when British Colonel Geoffrey Cardoso was given instructions to lay out and bury the Argentine combatants. He effectively made a meticulous job of pointing out the different graves, with identification when possible, while the others remained under a plaque which read simply “Argentine soldier, only known to God”.

According to the info supplied by Cardoso, the Sanchez grave also had the remains of three other members of the Gendarmerie. But in 2004, when the reconstruction of the cemetery including replacing white wooden crosses with new ones, three names, Sevilla, Aguirre and Luna, appeared at the grave of Sanchez.

But when the Humanitarian plan was implemented, which allowed for the identification of remains in 114 out of 122 non identified graves, the remains of Sevilla, Aguirre and Luna emerged in other tombs.

Thus the request for an extension of the period in which forensic anthropologists can work in the identification of other multiple graves. But one of them which contains remains of airmen and probably others, did not receive the authorization from the families involved.

Commenting on the latest events, Avruj said that “president Mauricio Macri was very clear and determined when he sponsored the humanitarian plan to identify our heroes buried at Darwin: to give the next of kin the reply they deserve from a State that has been unforgivably remiss for decades. And that is why we are doing it”.

The Humanitarian Plan has put Argentina in world consideration as to how advance, dialogue and through serious and sustained efforts, ensure government policies that fully impact in the positive lives of its citizens are made effective, added Avruj.