Rock star Roger Waters honoured by Buenos Aires City Legislature for humanitarian work

Roger Waters received a recognition from the Buenos Aires City Legislature on Thursday for his role in supporting efforts to identify fallen soldiers from the South Atlantic War, who were buried in unmarked graves on the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands.

At a ceremony in the capital attended by officials and family members of the fallen, the ex-Pink Floyd rock star was declared a Guest of Honour of Buenos Aires City, in recognition of his campaigning work in support of the process.

The honour came just days after Waters performed a solo concert before a sold-out crowd on Tuesday in La Plata, some 60km south of the capital, as part of his South American tour.

During the show, he paid tribute to the mothers of the slainsoldiersandtheMothers of Plaza de Mayo, who fought to uncover the fates of their children who were disappeared during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice.

Thanks to the humanitarian efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Argentine and UK governments, a total of 102 soldiers from 122 unmarked graves on the disputed islands have been identified to date.

Waters, who pressed the Argentine and UK governments and their leaders repeatedly to begin the operation, said he is aware of “the amount of work that has been done to raise the number of identified soldiers to 102,” out of a total of 122 listed as “not identified” (NN) at Darwin Cemetery on the disputed islands.

“We have to identify the other 20,” said Waters during the ceremony, in comments reported by AFP.