British warship anchors in Falklands

A British warship anchored in Argentina for the first time since the two countries went to war over the Falkland Islands 23 years ago, meeting a chilly reception in its homage to those who died in the conflict.

The captain of the icebreaker HMS Endurance, Nick Lambert, and interim Tierra del Fuego Governor Carlos Saladino presided over today’s memorial ceremony in Ushuaia, 2,150 miles south of the capital, Buenos Aires.

Captain Lambert called the visit “historic” and said he hoped it would mark the start of “a very good relationship between Argentines and Britons”, according to Argentine news media.

But some residents, still bitter over the war, raised a poster reading: “Killer pirates: English out of here!”

The British ship anchored yesterday, making what was described as a technical stop on a scientific research expedition to Antarctica.

Relations between Britain and Argentina have been haunted by the 1982 war that began when Argentina’s military government of the time captured the islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas.

Britain recaptured the archipelago in a 74-day war in which 649 Argentines and 272 Britons died.

Jose Martinez Aranibar, who heads the Argentine veterans association for the Rio Grande area, complained that Britain has blocked efforts by his comrades to return to the islands to visit the graves of war dead there.

“I would like it if the recognition of the dead was in the Malvinas, but because of various manoeuvres carried out by Great Britain, we cannot visit our dead in the islands,” he said

Authorities in the Falklands have refused to allow the Argentine flag to fly there.

So the veterans said they did not want to see British warships in Argentina.

“Next year, we’re ready to oppose this and the ship probably won’t be able to enter” our waters, said the veterans association chief for Usuaia, Juan Carlos Parodi.

The 120 crew members of the HMS Endurance were due to leave for Antarctica on Friday and were likely to carry out joint tasks with the Argentine icebreaker Irizar.