The Argentine Human Rights Secretary announced on Monday the name of another Argentine soldier fallen during the Falklands conflict and buried at the Argentine military cemetery at Darwin, taking the number of identified remains to 92.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that relations with Argentina will continue to grow despite the nations’ dispute over the Falkland Islands sovereignty. Argentina still claims the Islands that it calls the Malvinas. Britain says the Falklands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory under its protection, confirmed by a 2013 referendum.
”We would be delighted to have a normal, friendly relationship with all our neighbors, to freely trade with, work with and discuss things of mutual benefit” said Falkland Islands lawmaker MLA Roger Edwards at the UN Decolonization 2018 Pacific Regional Seminar held in Grenada last week. But, he added, “instead, we are not recognized or accepted as a people in our own right”, by Argentina.
The Malvinas Islands ex Combatants Center, CECIM has requested the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, to intercede before the Argentine government and demand a commitment that human rights abuses suffered by the Argentine conscripts during the South Atlantic conflict will be investigated. The case has 120 plaintiffs and 95 defendants.
British ambassador in Buenos Aires Mark Kent underlined how much Argentine/UK relations have advanced lately and in a brief speech mentioned football, artificial intelligence and Falklands/Malvinas, areas in which so much is shared by the two countries and how good will and humanitarian values can bring people together and overcome minor interests.
The Falklands population is crucial for any solution to the Argentine claim over the Islands given their overwhelming support from British public opinion (and political system), and its full integration with the 53-nation Commonwealth, according to Argentine ex diplomat Jorge Lidio Viñuela, considered an expert and militant on the issue of South Atlantic insular claims.
Argentina's Defense minister has sparked a political storm after appearing to imply the Falkland Islands are British. Oscar Aguad has been accused by the Buenos Aires media of suggesting that the Islands were not part of Argentine territory.
As Mercopress have covered, families of 90 unidentified soldiers visited the Falkland Islands from Argentina last week. They spent the day at the Argentine military cemetery at Darwin and paid respects to their sons, brothers and partners whose remains were recently identified after a lengthy DNA process administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
President Mauricio Macri received at the Olivos residence the relatives of the 90 soldiers buried at the Argentine military cemetery in the Falkland Islands and pledged that Argentina will continue to struggle for the sovereignty and recovery of the Islands.
The 36th anniversary of the Falklands conflict in 1982 will be recalled in Argentina with two main events: Malvinas relatives will be received on Monday afternoon by president Mauricio Macri at his official residence in Olivos while Interior Minister Rogelio Fregerio will head the ceremony in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, next to the Beagle Channel.