Buenos Aires (dpa) – The remote Islas Malvinas, known to Britain as the Falklands, are a national cause among Argentines, an embodiment of their identity and their sovereignty passed on from generation to generation almost since the country was founded. And yet, Argentines know that what may have been – and indeed may remain – a legitimate demand for Britain to give back the archipelago is deeply tainted by the warmongering of their own dictators, the same bloody military regime that is believed to have killed 30,000 people 1976-83. “In 1982 there were some who reproached the military for going to war. But most only reproached them for having lost it,” historian Luis Alberto Romero said recently in the Argentine daily La Nacion. Argentina only formally declared its independence from Spain in 1816, and it did not have a president with wide-ranging power until 1854. It is in this context that the British occupied the Falklands – some 460 kilometers off the Argentine mainland – in 1833, expelled the Argentine settlers that were in place at the time and brought in British citizens to replace them. The descendants of those settlers remain to the island to this day. Argentina always complained about what it saw as an illegal occupation of a portion of its territory. In 1982, however, as the country's military leaders sought to create a last chance for their regime, they opted to take the islands by force. The events of the two-month conflict, which claimed more than 900 lives, show that they rashly dragged Argentina, whose troops on the ground were mostly young, poorly trained, ill-equipped conscripts, into an impossible war with a global power. Years later, the social dimension of Malvinas remains two-fold: for most Argentines, the underlying cause is a just one that deserves to be insisted on in diplomatic forums, while the invasion of 1982 was a reckless, irresponsible and deadly adventure by an illegitimate leadership. The two countries restored diplomatic relations in 1989, but discourse continues to flare up regularly. Argentina's democratic governments have invariably insisted on the need for negotiations on the Falklands, and multilateral organs like the United Nations have supported this demand since before the war. Britain, on the other hand, remains firm in its assertion that the islands will remain British for as long as their inhabitants wish to remain British. For Buenos Aires, such a defense of self-determination makes no sense, since Falklanders were originally brought by what Argentines perceive as the occupying force. In January, British Prime Minister David Cameron caused puzzled looks in Argentina and beyond with his remarks on the issue. “What the Argentinians have been saying recently, I would argue, is far more like colonialism because these people want to remain British and the Argentinians want them to do something else,” Cameron said. “It strikes the eye that Britain should talk about colonialism when it is a country that is synonymous with colonialism,” Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman retorted. Timerman appeared to have a point. The Falklands are hardly like India or Kenya, which had indigenous populations. Argentina has obtained the backing of fellow South American nations, who are refusing entry to their ports to ships sailing under the archipelago's flag. “(Malvinas) has become a regional, American and global cause, and one that it is necessary to tackle seriously, very seriously,” Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said in March. Fernandez de Kirchner complained of Britain's “obstinate, incomprehensible refusal not to acknowledge (what Argentina believes to be its right), but to sit down and discuss what the United Nations demands, taking into account the interest of islanders.” She further complained that the Falklands, with a population of about 3,000, hold “more than one soldier for every three people.” “If that is not militarization, I don't know what is,” she said. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Cazk8 Tags: Argentina, Falkland Islands, Remembering, UK, War Section: Features, Latest News, South America
