By Klaus Dodds (*) - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death does not represent an opportunity to resolve the long-standing sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas. If anything it is a reminder of how entrenched her legacy is to this particular aspect of British foreign and security policy.
Falkland Islands lawmaker Dr. Barry Elsby and young Islander Krysteen Ormond are expected this week in Mexico with a full agenda of political contacts and media interviews referred to the March referendum when Islanders by an overwhelming turnout and support, 92% and 99.8%, decided to continue as a British Overseas Territory.
By Brian Swint (Bloomberg - Businessweek) - On March 10 and 11, Falkland Islanders voted in a referendum on whether to remain under British rule. Of its 2,563 citizens, only three voted no. The victory set off howls of indignation in nearby Argentina, which fought a brief, disastrous war with Britain over the South Atlantic islands in 1982.
Panama City. (Special for MercoPress). As part of an on-going tour of Central America, Falkland Islands lawmaker Dr Barry Elsby and young Islander Krysteen Ormond spent four days in Panama building links and sharing the results of the Islands’ historic March 10/1 referendum.
By Klaus Dodds (*) - The last couple of weeks have been busy ones when it comes to news about the Falkland Islands. Or Islas Malvinas as Argentine and other readers might insist upon. For others, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) is the preferred naming option — highlighting as it does their continued contested status.
A Falkland Islands delegation concluded this week a very successful visit to Colombia where they not only met with local authorities and lawmakers but also addressed the Lower House of Congress and were able to express loud and clear the Islanders’ message born out of the recent referendum in which they overwhelmingly voted to remain a British Overseas Territory.
Falklands’ lawmaker Gavin Short regretted on Tuesday in Bolivia that the governments of South America take for granted the Argentine version of the conflict between Argentina and the UK over the Islands sovereignty without ever having listened to the other side.
In full half page white and blue ads the Argentine embassy in Montevideo expressed on Tuesday how grateful it is to Uruguay for its support in the Malvinas Islands claim and for having been one of the first countries to reject the ‘legitimacy and publicity stunt’ of the ‘pseudo-referendum’ recently held in the Falklands.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez marked Tuesday's 31st anniversary of the start of the Falklands War by again demanding that Britain agree to discuss sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.
“I THINK there is no doubt that the Argentine Government will continue to look for opportunities to pull stunts of one kind or another.”
The speaker was Dr Peter Hayes, the Director of the FCO’s Overseas Territories Directorate who was paying a short visit to the Falkland Islands last week.