Falklands sovereignty: UN calls for renewed talks

The United Nations committee on decolonisation has called on Britain and Argentina to resume negotiations over the Falkland Islands, 20 years after the war.

The 24-member committee also adopted a resolution bemoaning the lack of negotiations in the past, despite widespread international support for negotiations and previous UN resolutions.

Argentina’s foreign minister Carlos Ruckauf reiterated his government’s commitment to recovering the Falklands and the surrounding waters while pledging to preserve the rights of its inhabitants.

He called on Britain to reconsider its unwillingness to resume negotiations on the question of sovereignty.

Two Falklands legislators said the island ran its own affairs, while consulting with Britain only on foreign affairs and defence.

Argentina should recognise the right of the Falkland Islands people to live under the government of their own choosing, said legislative council member Norma Edwards.

She said Britain had recognised the right of Falkland islanders to self-determination and had not objected when they rewrote the constitution to provide more autonomy to the territory.

James Douglas Lewis, whose Argentine ancestors were originally from the Falklands, said that Argentina’s claim to the islands was legitimate.

Britain, which took possession of the Falklands in 1833, considers the island chain one of its territories. Argentina, 350 miles to the west, contends it inherited the islands from the Spanish crown before that. Argentina calls the islands the Malvinas.

The islands’ 2,400 citizens, largely descendants of 19th-century English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh settlers, have maintained close ties with Britain rather than Argentina.

The two countries fought a 78-day war in 1982 over the islands. More than 700 Argentinians and 255 Britons were killed by the time the war ended on June 14, 1982.