Malvinas War families’ commission honours benefactor of Argentine memorial in Falklands

The Commission of Malvinas War Families paid homage to Argentine businessman Eduardo Eunerkian who has always been close to the organization and financed the construction of the Memorial at the Argentine cemetery in the Falkland Islands.

 Eduardo Eunekian during the ceremony at the Malvinas memorial in Buenos Aires

The mother of one of the soldiers buried at the Memorial in Darwin said the simple but moving event was an “act of homage and gratitude” to Mr. Eunerkian for two reasons.

“On the one hand because Eurnekian made his the pain and grief of so many families and this was in tune with the people; secondly because one must have a lot of courage and moral integrity to challenge those whom from very high positions, pretend a systematic oblivion of our sacrifices”, said the mother who spoke in the name of those killed during the 1982 conflict.

The event took place at Plaza San Martín to remember all the Argentine combatants that lost their lives in the 74-day war, following the invasion of the Falklands by Argentine forces. The square in downtown Buenos Aires has a memorial to the Malvinas war dead with a wall engraved with the names of all those who never returned.

“I want to honour the fallen in the defence of our (Malvinas) Islands and very especially you, the next of kin, the families who have dedicated thirty years of your lives not only to honour them, but to help keep alive that flame of sovereignty”, said Eurnekian.

Further on he stated the commemoration was not a homage to him, “it is an acknowledgement to all the fallen in the war, it is to them that the honouring must be addressed. That is the idea of a cenotaph with first names and sir names, so we can feel they are there”.

Following the ceremony in a brief exchange with the press, Eunerkian said that the commitment to the Malvinas cause “is born automatically from the moment of conception”.

He explained that as “an Argentine there is no need for any Argentine to ponder whether he has an interest or not for the Malvinas Islands. Secondly because when you have witnessed the circumstances of the struggle to recover them, it is evident one participates and gets emotive about the objective”.

But, “about the methodology I will not comment, but of the objective there is no doubt that all Argentines yearn that one day the Malvinas are again Argentine”.

Eduardo  Eurnekian is head of Corporacion America, a powerful Argentine holding with interests in airports, public works, energy, agro business and services. One of his latest projects is the construction of a tunnel under the Andes to link the Atlantic with the Pacific oceans.

Embarassing Argentine Farce - Argentina evacuates impounded frigate; Monday Timerman begins lobbying at the UN

The Argentine government ordered on Saturday the evacuation of the naval training frigate ARA Libertad impounded in Ghana by international creditors, following the warning made on Friday that complaints would be taken to the UN over the controversy.

Sombre faced ministers Puricelli and Timerman making the announcement

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli gave a press conference Saturday evening from Government House in Buenos Aires, reading a communiqué sent by President Cristina Fernández, in which she ordered the evacuation of the ship

“President Cristina Fernandez has decided the immediate evacuation of all the crew members, Argentine and non Argentines so as to preserve their physical integrity and dignity leaving on board the Captain and a minimum number of sailors for the maintenance of the frigate while it remains retained” in the port of Tema, Ghana, said Minister Timerman.

The frigate has been retained since 2 October in Ghana on an injunction order from a New York court on request from New York and Caribbean based funds holders of Argentine defaulted sovereign bonds and which pretend to collect full principal and interests.

Timerman said that “Argentina makes the government of Ghana responsible for all and every damage that the frigate ARA Libertad might suffer until its release, as well as all the costs generated because of an illegal action that violates international law”.

The Argentine minister added that on Monday, on specific instructions from President Cristina Fernandez, he will be meeting with the president of the UN Security Council in New York, “as well as with all those committees that address violations of human rights, international treaties and financial crimes”.

“The ruling from the Ghana Justice which orders the retention of the Frigate ARA Libertad not only violates international treaties which oblige Ghana to guarantee the immunity of war vessels, but also has put at risk the human rights of the 326 crewmembers on board, among which citizens from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and South Africa”, added the communiqué read by Timerman.

In direct criticism to the Ghana court ruling upholding the impound and banning ARA Libertad from bunkering, Timerman said that “the only reply from the magistrate to an Argentine request which contemplates the possibility of a tragedy, and the impossibility of providing the basic elements for any human being, was that we reach an agreement with the ‘vulture fund’ which presented the demand. It is then clear the intention of the magistrate to force a sovereign country to negotiate with an entity dedicated to financial piracy from its hideout in the Caribbean. That option, as was clearly stated yesterday (Friday) is the only unacceptable for Argentina”.

Standing next to Defence minister Arturo Puricelli Timerman concluded that an act “which ‘prima facie’ seemed a commercial impound has dropped its mask and is exposing the true face of the power of the ‘vulture funds’ that from their fiscal hideouts organize attacks which are none less than an abduction, an extortion and a piracy act against a sovereign country, founding member of the UN and of acknowledged participation in countless peace missions in the five continents”.

The ‘vulture funds’ in this particular case are demanding payment of over 300 million dollars in Argentine sovereign bonds which were not included in the voluntary restructuring of Argentina’s massive default in 2001. Between 2005 and 2010 Argentina managed to come to terms with 93% of bond holders, however there are still 7% pending most of them in the hands of these funds that precisely take advantage of these situations and try by all means (including impounding assets overseas) to collect the face value plus interests of those documents.

The defendant, in this case the Argentine Foreign Ministry, its representatives, agents including ARA Libertad Captain Lucio Salónica and the crew are barred from moving the vessel from the port of Tema without a new order from the court, according to last week’s ruling at the Accra High Court.

The plaintiff said it would accept a deposit bail of 20 million dollars to release the vessel but the Argentine government rejected the option point blank.

Argentine military governor of the Falklands arrested for human rights violations

The military governor of the Falkland Islands during Argentina’s brief occupation of the archipelago in 1982 was detained for his alleged role in human rights abuses at a notorious torture center in the 1970s, prosecutors said Thursday.

General Mario Benjamin Menendez allegedly was head of a torture centre in 1975 during the “Operation Independence” in the province of Tucuman

Former Gen. Mario Benjamin Menendez was arrested at his home in Buenos Aires on Wednesday and transferred to a federal prison in Tucuman province, 1.300 kilometers north of Argentina’s capital.

The 82-year-old Menendez was briefly governor of the Falklands after Argentina occupied the Islands by force in April 1982. It subsequently lost control when British troops retook the Islands and the Argentine troops surrendered on 14 June 1982.

His arrest relates to ‘‘La Escuelita,’’ a torture center in Tucuman province that he allegedly helped run in 1975, the year before the military coup that ushered in Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, the attorney general’s office said Thursday. Prosecutors said he was head of the ‘‘Tactical Command Post’’ at the center.

A unit of the Marxist Cuban trained Revolutionary People’s Army, ERP, operated in the mountains of Tucuman in 1974, and the civilian government in power at the time ordered a crackdown on the group. The campaign was called “Operation Independence”.

Prosecutors say 1.507 suspects passed through the center between Feb. 10 and Dec. 18, 1975, part of a systematic campaign of repression against dissidents and leftists ahead of the coup.

From February to December 1975, thirty military units were involved in the operation including border guards and federal police which also helped to disband sugar industry unions and militant student organizations.

The operation was under the command of General Adel Edgardo Vilas and later by General Antonio Domingo Bussi, who died in jail in 2008 condemned for human rights abuses. But he was also a successful politician and was voted governor of Tucuman under democracy.

Besides Menendez, 21 other people have been arrested across Argentina in connection with the case. Among them is a cousin of Menendez, former Col. Jose Maria Menendez, who is under house arrest.

Another military officer arrested former Colonel Walter Saborido, was deputy governor candidate in Tucuman’s last elections running for a party called La Linea which supposedly rallied all those who somehow were involved in the “Operation Independence”. He owns a security company which employs 200 people.

UK sees Security Council with “no appetite” to address Falklands issue

The United Kingdom said it did not see ‘any appetite’ from the UN Security Council members to address the Falklands/Malvinas issue, following the election of Argentina as one of the five new non permanent members to the council on Thursday.

“I think the Security Council has a large agenda of serious and pressing issues of international peace and security. We don’t see any appetite among other Council members to have that issue raised in the Council”, said Ambassador Philip Parham, Chargé D’Affaires of the UK mission to the UN.

Ambassador Parham made the statement following the UN General Assembly vote on the new five Council members: Argentina, Rwanda, Australia, Luxembourg and South Korea. Argentina was the country which had the greatest support, 182 votes out of the 193 UN members and ran unopposed in her group.

The arrival of Argentina to the UN council for two years beginning next January coincides with growing tension with the UK over the Falklands sovereignty dispute, and forecasted to worsen not only because of the 30th anniversary this year of the South Atlantic conflict but because of the dynamic development of the oil and gas industry in the Islands waters.

Earlier in the week Argentina formally presented a complaint before the Security Council relative to the alleged ‘militarization’ of the South Atlantic with regular exercises involving launching missiles from the Falklands. UK argues the exercises are routine since the end of the conflict in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Islands.

Nevertheless Ambassador Parham said the UK wants to work closely with Argentina on many issues of common interest.

“We look forward also to working closely with Argentina as we do in many other fora on issues, for example, non-proliferation and human rights”, said the UK diplomat welcoming Argentina to the Security Council.

Ambassador Parham also made a brief statement welcoming the newly elected non permanent members recalling Luxembourg will be joining the Council for the first time, “a founder member of the UN joins the Council for the first time and is member who makes a disproportionate contribution to the UN work”.

Australia has made historic contributions to international peace and security such as the Cambodia peace agreements and currently, to stabilisation in Afghanistan. Australia returns to the Council for the first time since 1986.

“Rwanda will bring to the Council the particular perspective of a country that has overcome serious conflict and has done so more successfully than many. We look forward to working with them on issues of international peace and security, including the efforts to try to end the cycle of violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo”.

And finally the Republic of Korea will join the Council “as a significant international actor, one that’s making major contributions to the work of the United Nations”.

The Americas Defence ministers’ conference divided on Falklands/Malvinas issue

Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands continues to generate discrepancies among countries of the Americas, as was exposed in the Declaration of Punta del Este, at the end of the X Conference of Defence Ministers of the Americas which took place in Uruguay.

Uruguayan Defence minister Fernandez Huidobro, “it remains a very controversial issue”

“The Malvinas issue is still very controversial for the Americas” admitted on Wednesday Uruguay’s Minister of Defence Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro pro-tempore president and host of the event.

The Falklands/Malvinas issue and a peace zone in the South Atlantic, despite not being part of the official agenda of the meeting, was addressed by an ad hoc committee that held ‘long discussions’ during the four day meeting in an attempt to bring closer the different positions.

Nevertheless Argentina managed to include two articles in the final declaration on the issue, although 15 of the 34 countries from the Americas expressed some “degree of safeguard or reserve”.

All members agreed to subscribe Article 19 of the Declaration which points out that “in the framework of the peaceful character of the Americas continent nations, they express their willingness to promote peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic”.

This was followed by “recognition” of the “importance” of this year’s OAS AG/Dec70 declaration which “decided to continue examining the Malvinas Islands issue until its definitive solution, underlining that this is an issue of standing hemispheric interest”.

Regarding this text Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Ecuador, Guyana, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela expressed “concern” over the “growing militarization” of the South Atlantic and exercises which include “firing missiles” as the ones taking place in the Malvinas Islands.

They also reiterated their “strong support” for the “legitimate rights” of Argentina in the sovereignty dispute over the Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces.

Chile, Colombia and Mexico coincided in the “support” to Argentine sovereignty claims over the Malvinas but with no reference to the “militarization of the South Atlantic” which is attributed to the UK.

The US pointed out that the Falklands/Malvinas issue does not correspond to the Defence ministers of the Americas forum, and Canada openly dissented with the inclusion of the paragraph arguing that it is a “bilateral issue” and underlined that the “population of the Falkland Islands have the right to determine their own future”.

The Declaration of Punta del Este also referred to the member-countries ‘conviction’ that democratic institutions are the “fundamental pillars” to achieve peace, security, social equality and development in the hemisphere countries.

They also pointed out the importance of cooperation in defence and security issues “to address the new challenges” and their support to measures that strengthen institutional capacities together with the commitment to update the inter-American defence system.

The need to modernize the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty, (TIAR) going back to 1947 as well as the Inter-American Defence Board (JID), were the two issues of “ongoing strong debate” and with visions “quite distant” according to sources at the discussions.

In the final declaration the two visions were reflected in the request to the OAS Permanent Council ‘to program and advance”, with the participation of Defence ministries, of meetings “to discuss the future of the mission and functions” of the Inter-American defence system including the JID.

Ministers also pledged “to expand the dissemination process” of international humanitarian Law and human rights through “doctrine, training and education”, whatever the case, among the Armed and Security forces.

Finally the delegates of the 28 participants out of 34 country members voted for Peru to take over the pro tempore presidency of the eleventh defence ministers conference to be held in that country in 2014.