Only 3,000 people live on the Falkland Islands. Photo credit: Chris. P
British Prime Minister David Cameron has marked the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falklands by saying Britain will continue to “staunchly” protect the islanders’ right to determine their own future.
Sky News reported that recent months have seen tensions rising between London and Buenos Aires, with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government loudly asserting its sovereignty claim to Las Malvinas, as it calls the archipelago. The ongoing war of words between the UK and Argentinian governments has some wondering whether what happened in 1982 could happen again. After Margaret Thatcher’s 1982 Falklands War, is another Tory government set to flex its military muscles by sending the big guns to the South Pacific? And do they even have the military capability to defend the Falklands any more?
Cameron: Falkland Islands are not for turning. In a gesture of reconciliation, Cameron said in a statement to mark the occasion that the anniversary should be a day to remember the 649 Argentinians who died in the conflict as well as the 255 British armed forces personnel who were killed. But the PM said Britain would not compromise on the islanders’ right to self-determination. “Thirty years ago today the people of the Falkland Islands suffered an act of aggression that sought to rob them of their freedom and their way of life,” he lamented. “Today, we salute the heroism of the Task Force which set sail to free the islands. We are rightly proud of the role Britain played in righting a profound wrong. And the people of the Falkland Islands can be justly proud of the prosperous and secure future they have built for their islands since 1982. Britain remains staunchly committed to upholding the right of the Falkland Islanders, and of the Falkland Islanders alone, to determine their own future. That was the fundamental principle that was at stake 30 years ago: and that is the principle which we solemnly re-affirm today.”
The Falkland Islands population has doubled to almost 3,000 in the last 30 years as the economy has prospered.
Hague: We’ve got the back of Falkland islanders. Writing in The Telegraph, Foreign Secretary William Hague sung for the same hymn sheet as Cameron. “Today’s anniversary of the start of that conflict marks a day for commemoration and reflection, especially for those families – on both sides – whose loved ones were lost to its battles, including many Argentine soldiers who also rest in peace on the islands. In the UK, we will remember those 255 service personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice for an inviolable principle: to restore the Falkland islanders’ right to determine by whom they wished to be governed.” “As we look back on those events, we should remind the world that in the years since their liberation the Falkland islanders have repeated – without qualification or equivocation – their wish to keep their constitutional status, their national identity, and to live peacefully with their neighbours in Latin America,” insisted Hague. The foreign secretary argued that, “the Argentine government’s policy in recent months has been deeply regrettable and its statements have impressed few people, including in South America. In place of the dialog and engagement we saw in the 1990s, Argentina has in recent years taken a range of measures to try to coerce the islands: from attempts to intimidate businesses involved in the hydrocarbons industry, to the harassment of Falkland fishing vessels by the Argentine coastguard … Such efforts to intensify a disagreement – which neither we nor the people of the Falkland Islands have ever sought to provoke – are out of step with international collaboration in the modern world.”
Britain “will not negotiate over the sovereignty of the islands unless and until the people who live there wish it” boomed Foreign Secretary William Hague in The Telegraph.
Argentine government is bang out of line. In an editorial, The Telegraph backed the Tory line and slammed Argentina’s “unprovoked aggression.” “Regrettably, we can expect the Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, to use the occasion the anniversary) to step up her already strident campaign of intimidation and bluster against the islanders,” sighed the newspaper. “Her government’s latest ruse is to threaten legal action against the British and American banks acting for companies searching for oil and gas in Falklands waters – all part of a broader strategy to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the Falkland islanders. It is, of course, the potential hydrocarbon wealth of the south Atlantic that has prompted Argentina to push its claim of sovereignty.” “This approach is not universally welcomed, even in Argentina itself,” noted The Telegraph. Earlier this year, a group of prominent Argentine intellectuals published an open letter denouncing Kirchner’s campaign as ‘absurd’ and arguing that the islanders’ right to self-determination be respected.
This morning, a candle was lit in a chapel at Staffordshire’s National Memorial Arboretum. It will be left alight for the 74 days of the conflict.
Can Britain still defend the Falklands? The Times (£) wondered if, thirty years on, Britain is still able to actually defend the Falklands. It noted warnings from Admiral Sir John Woodward, the commander of the task force that recaptured the Falklands, who has said that the PM would be powerless to respond if the same happened again. Woodward and other military top brassers have heavily criticised the reduction in British aircraft carrier capability. “Asked whether Britain could retake the Falklands again, he (Woodward) said: ‘Without carriers, no.’ Britain’s air defences on the islands would also fail to prevent a determined invasion attempt, he warned.”
Argentinian military are even weaker. John Simpson of the BBC said that a repeat of 1982 is highly unlikely given the weakness of the Argentinian military. He reported that military spending “has been cut back savagely” and that Argentina’s air force is still only equipped with the planes it had in 1982. “There is basically only enough money in the defence budget nowadays to pay the wages of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians the armed forces ministry employs, and to finance their greatly-restricted local operations,” noted the BBC man. But Simpson insisted President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is “using different weapons against Britain’s ownership of the Falkland Islands: diplomatic ones … Argentina’s hope is that Britain will become so embarrassed by the disapproval of other countries that it will eventually agree to negotiate with Argentina over the sovereignty of the islands.” Simpson said the president’s rabble-rousing might be playing well with some patriotic Argentinian voters but noted that political opponents interpret her ramping up of the Falklands issue as an attempt to distract attention away from Argentina’s mounting economic woes.