The International Committee of the Red Cross is scheduled on Friday to hand the Argentine government the final report on the 121 graves of unknown Argentine combatants who fought in the South Atlantic conflict in 1982 and are buried in the Darwin cemetery, and whose remains were analyzed for identification earlier this year by a forensic team.
The humanitarian mission to identify the Argentine unknown soldiers fallen during the South Atlantic conflict and buried in the Falkland Islands Darwin cemetery is reaching its end, and many families will finally know, after 35 years, where the remains of their loved ones rest, according to the Buenos Aires media.
The forensic team from the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, involved in the Falklands Humanitarian Project is currently analyzing the DNA samples taken from the Argentine soldiers remains buried at the Darwin cemetery in the Islands, and defining strategies that should allow the delivery of results to the Argentine, and United Kingdom governments.
Humanitarian exhumation tasks at the Darwin cemetery in the Falkland Islands unearthed 121 body remains of Argentine combatants, and not 123 as originally expected, revealed the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, during a media conference in Buenos Aires.
About 50% of samples from exhumed remains of Argentine war dead buried in the Falkland Islands have been analyzed and all of them have provided good quality DNA, ICRC Operational Coordinator for Humanitarian Project Laurent Corbaz, stated this week. He provided an update on the work undertaken in recent months at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin.
By British Ambassador Mark Kent (*) A few days ago I completed my first year as British Ambassador to Argentina. During this time, I have had the fortune to meet the people of the country, visit some of its cities, try its food, attend events and learn about its way of life.
”Everything was caught on camera and there is an ongoing investigation,” the International Red Cross has confirmed, referring to the controversy in July when images of the Argentine cemetery in the Falkland Islands were reproduced in the Argentine press.
During seven weeks of intense work, which began on 20 June, a team of 14 specialists – from Argentina, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom – exhumed, analysed, sampled and documented the remains of each of the unidentified soldiers. The work was carried out in a high-tech temporary mortuary built on-site for the purposes of the operation.
Controversy has erupted in Argentina following the release in Facebook of clandestine pictures from the current exhumation works at the Darwin Cemetery in the Falklands with the purpose of identifying the remains of Argentine combatants in at least 95 graves with tombstone reading, “Argentine soldier, known only to God”.
The work of the forensic team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to identify Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin cemetery is making good progress and proceeding as planned.