Argentina’s government renewed its sovereignty claim to the Malvinas while paying tribute to those who died in the South Atlantic war with Britain, which began 39 years ago yesterday.
"The Malvinas were, are and shall be Argentine," tweeted President Alberto Fernández celebrating his 62nd birthday the same day.
"Today we honour the memory of our heroic veterans and war dead in the Malvinas, as we do every April 2, while vindicating our sovereignty over the territory," added Fernández.
The 74-day war during the Leopoldo Galtieri dictatorship in 1982 claimed the lives of 648 Argentines and 255 British servicemen, concluding in the surrender of the invading Argentine forces with the archipelago returning to British hands.
"The best way of paying tribute to them is to continue working every day to reach our goal of regaining the effective exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding waters, for which many of them gave their lives," said a Foreign Ministry communiqué, adding: "We denounce the existence of a British military base on the islands flouting all United Nations resolutions, as well as the usurpation of the South Atlantic’s natural resources which belong to the Argentine people."
Buenos Aires has unceasingly claimed sovereignty over the islands with the argument that they were usurped in 1833, having been inherited from their former Spanish colonial masters, as well as accusing London of violating international resolutions in reference to a 1965 UN resolution calling on the two countries to begin a dialogue regarding sovereignty, a negotiation yet to start.
Argentina urges that "the consensus of the international community generate the conditions for the United Kingdom to take up the bilateral sovereignty negotiations in the terms stipulated by the UN."
London bases its case on the self-determination of the 4,000 islanders, who voted almost 100 percent in a 2013 referendum to continue belonging to Britain.
– TIMES/AFP
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