President fires back at British PM, who had criticized Timerman for bringing up issue
Tension between Argentina and the United Kingdom escalated yesterday on the Day of the Sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands as UK Prime Minister David Cameron criticized Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman for his words on the issue — and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner lashed back at the British leader from Buenos Aires.
“Taking charge of our mistakes, of our past and of our choices, we make a new appeal for dialogue,” Fernández de Kirchner said during a rally at the Malvinas Museum that is in the former clandestine detention centre Navy Mechanics School (ESMA).
“The prime minister rebuked our foreign minister, who had only requested (the UK) respect the Charter of the United Nations,” the president said before a group of officials, veterans and human rights activists.
Fernández de Kirchner spoke hours after Timerman raised the issue of the Malvinas during a meeting between the European Union (EU) and the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) in Brussels.
“The Argentine government requests the EU countries renew the appeal to fulfill the UN resolutions over Malvinas,” Timerman said, emphasizing that the exploitation of natural resources in the region was illegal.
“Regretfully, colonialism — that still exists nowadays — continues with the logic of the appropriation of natural resources. Over the past few months, the South Atlantic has seen hydrocarbon exploitation in the proximity of the Malvinas Islands,” Timerman added.
Cameron, who had already addressed the representatives of the ECLAC and the EU nations, requested to respond to Timerman.
“The Falklands have the right to self-determination,” Cameron said. The Pink House has long argued that the claims for self-determination are not valid because the islanders are an implanted population.
Cameron considered Timerman’s words were “intimidating.” But for the Argentine foreign minister, Cameron only tried to dodge the larger discussion.
“It would have been better if instead of expressing his annoyance and talking as if he were in the British parliament, he would have said: ‘OK, let’s sit down to talk and see how to resolve this,’” Timerman said yesterday after the meeting held in Brussels.
In late April, prosecutor Carlos Gonella (Economic Crime and Money Laundering Unit, PROCELAC), Río Grande federal prosecutor Marcelo Rapoport and the coordinating prosecutor for Tierra del Fuego Adrián García Lois filed a criminal complaint against five energy companies that are drilling for oil near the Malvinas Islands. Hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters off the Malvinas Islands has been a hot topic for years and the lawsuit was prepared following an initial criminal complaint drafted by the Argentine Foreign Ministry and the Planning Ministry, which responsible for energy matters.
The same history
Making it clear that Timerman’s words were part of the same strategy to bring back the Malvinas issue to the political agenda, Fernández de Kirchner also called London to negotiate.
“They still say they’re threatened,” the president said in a direct reference to the conservative premier.
“But the only weapon we have and we will never give up is dialogue,” she said, suggesting that the foreign policy she conducted while she was in the Pink House will be continued by her successor.
“There will always be patriots who believe that it is worthy to fight for what belongs to us and for the memory of those who gave their lives for the cause,” she said.
Fernández de Kirchner yesterday went back to the former ESMA less than three weeks after inaugurating a memorial at the Officers Quarters — where around 5,000 political prisoners were illegally held between 1976-1983. Yesterday she opened a room devoted to late former president Juan Domingo Perón at the Malvinas Museum. Perón was who declared June 10 the Day of Argentine Sovereignty over the Islands.
The museum was inaugurated last year.
With a veiled reference to late former president Arturo Illia, Fernández de Kirchner also reminded that it was in 1965 — during his presidency — that the UN issued a resolution urging the United Kingdom to hold talks with Argentina.
Memories
After her speech, the president unveiled the so-called “lighthouse for sovereignty” placed within the building located on Del Libertador Avenue.
“This reflects our struggle against colonialism and our permanent claim against 17 colonialist settlements. Oddly enough — or not that oddly — 10 of them belong to the United Kingdom,” Fernández de Kirchner doubled down her criticism.
During yesterday’s ceremony, the president also gave some belongings back to former combatants — which were in the hands of the British armed forces — and tied the claim over the islands with the legal battle against “vulture funds.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald