Young Falkland Islanders with a taste for politics will be holding this Monday a special meeting of the Commonwealth Day Youth Parliament. The event will take place beginning at 10:00 at the Chamber of Commerce and is open to the public wishing to attend.A distinguished witness of the debate will be HMA Anwar Choudhury, British ambassador to Peru.
Argentine foreign ministry officials reiterated to representatives from the Malvinas Fallen Relatives Commission and the Confederation of Malvinas Combatants that the initiative to identify Argentine unknown soldiers buried in the Darwin cemetery in the Falklands, is strictly humanitarian.
An Argentine delegation linked to human rights groups is en route to the Falkland Islands with a message of dialogue, peace and demilitarization, hoping to meet Islanders, express support for the identification process of unknown combatants buried in Darwin cemetery, collect evidence on abuses committed by Argentine officers during the 1982 conflict, but also claim sovereignty and reject militarization of the Islands.
The Overseas Games Association received a generous £30,000 from fishing company Fortuna Ltd to be used to purchase sports kit for the competitors at this year’s Island Games in Gotland. Presenting the cheque Fiona Wallace said that as the wholly-Falkland Islander owned company was celebrating its 30th anniversary, it was felt appropriate to support a nationally significant event.
A remainder of the rights of Falkland Islanders has been included in an open letter from the Falklands Government to a delegation of Argentines due to arrive Saturday. They are part of the Comisión Provincial de la Memoria CPM, an independent non-governmental organization.
British ambassador in Buenos Aires, Mark Kent this week held a meeting with relatives of Argentine combatants who lost their lives during the Falklands conflict in 1982, according to the embassy twitter. The meeting was described as “historic”, and Ambassador Kent said that the “warm and most respectful dialogue”, addressed humanitarian issues and “how to honor the memory and dignity of the fallen in combat”.
The Falklands population continues to grow, is generally better off, healthier and happy with the roof over their heads, than four years ago when the last Census was conducted. Maeve Daly, Statistics and Performance Officer of FIG’s Policy Unit presented the ‘headlines’ of the latest Census, at a Public Meeting last week.
Britain has awarded £153 million (US$ 187 million) worth of contracts to equip the Falkland Islands with a new ground-based air-defense system known as Sky Sabre, the Ministry of Defense has confirmed, according to Defense News.
A Royal Air Force Hercules was photographed at the Porto Alegre international airport in August last year when it called allegedly for refueling, en route to the Falkland/Malvinas islands, according to the Rio Grande do Sul main daily Zero Hora. The photo from Centeno Mendes, was published following Argentina's official concern to Brasilia regarding 18 RAF calls in Brazilian airports, in the last two years.
There are no secret flights between Falklands and Brazil, and any landings which have occurred are because of medical or mechanical emergencies, said UK ambassador in Argentina Mark Kent, in fluent Spanish, currently visiting the province of Mendoza on official business and for the grape harvest and wine festival.