Argentina to complain to UN over Falklands
Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner on Tuesday slammed Britain
for its “militarization” of their conflict over the Falklands, saying
she would lodge a formal complaint with the United Nations.
“We will present a complaint to the UN Security Council and the UN
General Assembly, as this militarization poses a grave danger to
international security,” Kirchner told a group of politicians and
Falklands war veterans.
The two sides have ramped up the rhetoric in the run-up to the 30th
anniversary of the war, which broke out on April 2, 1982, when the
ruling junta in Buenos Aires invaded the disputed islands in a bid to
end British rule.
Britain has held the islands, home to about 3,000 inhabitants, since
1833.
Argentine officials have been seething in recent weeks, denouncing
the deployment of a British warship and the dispatch of Prince William,
second in line to the throne, for a tour of duty as a helicopter pilot.
Buenos Aires has also reacted sharply to a report that Britain had
moved a nuclear submarine to the region, even though British officials
have not confirmed the report in the Daily Mail newspaper. Britain “is
once again in the process of militarizing the south Atlantic,” Kirchner
said in the speech before an audience that included diplomats and
opposition leaders, a map of the islands behind her.
“We cannot interpret in any other way the deployment of an
ultra-modern destroyer accompanying the heir to the throne, whom we
would prefer to see in civilian attire.” She said the Falklands were no
longer “the cause of only the people of Argentina, but the cause of all
Latin Americans -- and a worldwide cause.” Hundreds of protesters
rallied near the Casa Rosada, the government palace where Kirchner was
speaking, waving Argentine flags and shouting: “Malvinas! They belong to
us!” referring to the islands as they are known here. In London, a
Foreign Office spokesman told AFP: “The people of the Falkland Islands
are British out of choice. They are free to determine their own future
and there will be no negotiations with Argentina on sovereignty unless
the islanders wish it.” Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant wrote
to the UN last week complaining that Argentina’s actions on the
Falklands in recent years put in doubt the South American nation’s
commitment to “peaceful cooperation.” Argentina has obtained the support
of neighbors Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, who have all refused to welcome
ships flying the Falklands flag in their ports -- a diplomatic offensive
that sparked anger in London. AFP
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