Argentina accuses UK of ‘colonialism’
IN A bitter New Year attack, the president of Argentina today accuses Britain of ‘colonialism’ by holding on to the Falkland Islands.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claims the UK stole the South Atlantic archipelago and ‘expelled’ Argentine settlers 180 years ago.
Her outburst is designed to spark a war of words by raising the pressure over sovereignty on the anniversary of the islands becoming a British territory on January 3, 1833.
Argentina tried to seize them back in 1982 but was defeated by Britain in a war that cost the lives of 2 British troops and 649 Argentines.
The president’s allegations were made in an open letter addressed to David Cameron and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. They are the latest in a string of inflammatory rants over the islands’ future and come less than ten weeks before around 1, 00 eligible islanders hold the first ever vote on whether they want to remain British.
The referendum set for March 10-11, overseen by international observers, is widely expected to send a clear message to Argentina to keep its hands off.
That would be a humiliation for President Kirchner who has used sovereignty claims to deflect attention from unpopular social and economic policies.
It would also underpin the UN principle of ‘self-determination’ for the people of the Falklands.
In the letter, President Kirchner said Argentina was ‘forcibly stripped’ of the islands it calls Las Malvinas in a ‘blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism’. She added that ‘Argentines on the islands were expelled
‘Territorial aspirations’
and the UK began a population implementation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule’.
She added: ‘Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic.’ The Foreign Office ‘strenuously denied’ the claims and accused Argentina of trying to ‘write the Falkland islanders out of history’.
Whitehall sources said the Government could order Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, to rebut the ‘crazy’ allegations.
In a speech to the UN last year, Sir Mark criticised Argentina’s ‘aggressive territorial aspirations’ over the Falklands and said its claims were ‘without foundation’.
He said: ‘No civilian population was expelled on 3 January 1833 and the United Kingdom has never implanted any civilian population.’
Diplomatic friction between Britain and Argentina has intensified since 2010, when the Government authorised oil exploration in the waters near the islands.