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Argentina's president renews claim to Falkland Islands | |
(40 minutes later) | |
Argentina's president is pressing her country's claim to the Falkland Islands with a high-profile appearance before a little-known United Nations committee on the 30th anniversary of the end of the war. | Argentina's president is pressing her country's claim to the Falkland Islands with a high-profile appearance before a little-known United Nations committee on the 30th anniversary of the end of the war. |
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's attendance on Thursday at the annual meeting of the UN decolonisation committee is the first by a head of state, and she is taking dozens of supporters with her. By contrast, the Falkland Islands will be represented by two members of the legislative assembly, accompanied by six young islanders. | |
Argentina claims Britain has illegally occupied the islands they call the Islas Malvinas since 1833. Britain disputes Argentina's claim to the islands and says Argentina ignores the wishes of the island's 3,000 residents who have expressed a desire to remain British. Argentina maintains that the residents do not have the unilateral right to decide the sovereignty of their islands. | |
The clash over the islands flared into war in 1982 when Argentina's then-military dictatorship invaded the archipelago 290 miles (460km) off South America's coast. | |
Fernández asked the 24-member committee to schedule the annual discussion of the Falkland Islands' status on Thursday's anniversary of Britain's victory that ended the 74-day conflict. | |
Britain's UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, recalled that on the 20th anniversary of the war there were joint commemorative events honouring the 649 Argentinians, 255 British soldiers and three islanders who died in the conflict and "it was done in a very statesman-like way". | |
Lyall Grant said it was "very sad" that "this year the Argentinians for obviously purely domestic political reasons have hyped up the rhetoric in a massive way and are using every opportunity to try to internationalise the issue and get support from the regional organisations and make a song and dance at the UN". | |
At last year's committee meeting, the Argentinian foreign minister, Hector Timerman, called for Britain to hold "good faith" negotiations on Falklands sovereignty, and Fernández is likely to make a similar appeal. The committee itself reiterated its long-standing endorsement of talks. | |
Britain has refused Argentina's repeated calls to negotiate the islands' sovereignty, saying it is up to the islanders to decide. | Britain has refused Argentina's repeated calls to negotiate the islands' sovereignty, saying it is up to the islanders to decide. |
The Falkland Islands government announced on Tuesday it planned to hold a referendum next year on its political future. | |
Gavin Short, the chairman of the Falklands' legislature, said he hoped a referendum would help the Falklanders "convey a strong message to the outside world" about their desire to retain its ties with London. |
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