Isn’t it a pity that the Argentine President, Cristina Kirchner, has once again ratcheted up pressure on the Falkland Islanders in the forlorn hope that Britain will somehow cave in and meekly hand the population over to the clutches of her country?
So she is now calling on the United Nations to intervene to prevent a war against Argentina.
In a speech at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to veterans of the Falkland’s war thirty years ago, Cristina Kirchner stood provocatively in front of a large map of the islands overlaid by the colours of the Argentine flag.
‘It’s a regional and global issue, because they are militarising the South Atlantic, one more time.’ She said. ‘Try as we may, we cannot interpret it in any other way. They are sending a destroyer – just the word itself. This huge and modern destroyer is accompanied by the heir to the throne. We would like to have seen him in civilian clothes, not in a military uniform.’ And she added ‘That’s why I’ve asked the foreign minister to make a formal representation to the UN security Council and the UN general Assembly that militarisation of the South Atlantic is a grave international security risk.
The UK government has maintained that the deployment of the most modern and capable air defence destroyer in the fleet, HMS Dauntless, to the area was just a routine rotational deployment. After all it did replace another frigate. And that sending Prince William to the island was also routine. It is a bit of a pity that when the Dauntless was deployed there was much crowing on the British side from politicians and senior servicemen alike that this would give the Argentines something to think about and that it could deal with anything thrown at it.
The UK stance is of course that as long as the islanders want to remain British they will stay British and come under British protection.
Simon Weston, the British Falklands veteran who was very badly injured during the 1982 conflict, called Mrs Kirchner ‘a troubled woman’ on the BBC and, referring to the ‘piracy’ against Falkland flagged vessels, told Sky News that it was she who was increasing the temperature and tension over the islands, not the British.
Some may see her posturing as a way of consolidating her domestic position, if that is the case then it shows a very crude understanding of foreign affairs.
Others believe that the discovery of oil in the Falkland’s region has re-ignited Argentine interest in the area.
But whatever the reason it does not detract from the truth that the islanders have been there for hundreds of years. And a look at the Wiki timeline of de facto control shows that the UK claim pre-dates that of the Argentine’s.
But most importantly, the islanders are overwhelmingly committed to remaining British.
Then of course there is the matter of the 255 British servicemen who lost their lives defending the liberty and choice of the islanders after the Argentine aggression against the Falklands in 1982.
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Tags: falkland islands, News, Politics
Understand however, that Britain is occupying the Falklands to stop production of oil there, to keep oil prices high on the behalf of BP and other oil companies. That place is swimming with enough oil to power Britain for centuries. Argentina wish to exploit the oil to develop their economy and help their people, to pay off their creditors. We also bombed Libya because Ghadafi was using oil revenue to built up and develop Libya and notice that the oil output of Iraq collapsed after invasion. The war in Iran is having the same affect, increasing prices at the pump so that oil companies can produce less for more money. Who then is the bad guy? Do you, as British citizen benefit from your army being deployed to stop oil production to ensure that oil prices remain high for the oil companies? So that you can continue being ripped off, paying £1.40 a liter? Petrol should, absent these conflicts, be 50p/litre.
Bezants?
The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina. The days of British colonialism are withering. Is it not enough that Britain own America, Israel, Canada, Australia etc?.
Give back the Falklands to its rightful people.
We Britons DON’T own America, Israel, Canada or Australia. ALL of these countries are independent and have been for a long while. Britain DOES have ethnic and cultural ties with Australia and Canada in particular but they both have the Queen as Head of State but that is doesn’t mean they don’t run themselves.
As for the Falklands, Britain ISN’T holding a subject people against their will.. The islanders are nearly all of British descent and freely choose to remain under our rule.
How strange that they claim historical ownership of the Islands, when British settlement was established long before there was such a country as Argentina! Still,I can’t imagine the UN taking such hysterical spoutings to be anything other than what they are – a politician ‘playing to the baying crowd’! (Which I believe is a very long way from being a majority of Argentinians – especially those who lost family members to the grandiose plans of the former military dictatorship.)
The Falkland Islands ARE already occupied by their ‘rightful people’ – the Falkland Islanders.
British does not ‘occupy’ the Falkland Islands, the Falkland Islands are British by choice in accordance with their right to self-determination. They own their own oil resources and the how, why, where and when of the exploitation of those resources is the jurisdication of the Falklands Government not the UK. Take your conspiracy theories someplace else.
Ha Ha Haaa!!!!! As if the Falkland Island Government has ANY power to contradict the British government! That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!!!!!
It is not conspiracy theories that ALL the wars in recent decades were over oil or opium. And each and every conflict has caused oil prices to rise and military contractors have been making money hand over fist.
So don’t come at me with loony tunes nonsense about these bloody wars not being a corporate conspiracy.
Do you like paying £1.40 for petrol? Try £5 once the government have had their way with Iran and murdered half the population there, using depleted uranium munitions which cause birth defects for millions of years, killing the troops which use it, causing radioactive uranium dust to dissipate across the world.
How does that help with the growth that governments across the world keep calling for?
Surely killing people off is the last thing they want to do? Fewer consumers!
Higher fuel prices will also kill growth, in fact it seems that they desperately want to get at all the oil they can.
The Falkland Islands have a centre of conflict since 1766. In 1833 Britain reoccupied them, and there has been a British presence there ever since.
The Islanders’ right to determine their own future in enshrined in the UN Charter and Britain is meeting its obligations under Article 73.
Argentina is in clear breach of Article 74.
I don’t understand Argentina’s claim to the islands. They were first landed by Britain in 1690, then by Spanish and French before we established a permanant presence 200 years ago. Further, they lie outside both Argentinas territorial and economic waters so where on earth does their claim come from?!! They’re just frustrated that they can’t get access to the oil there and Kirchner is using it for her own political ends. As for oil conspiracy theorys soon we’ll be using hydrogen powered vehicles so I wouldn’t worry about petrol prices too much – leave that for the arabs.