Argentina to take fight with Ghana to UN
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina said it would haul Ghana before the United Nations over the seizure this month in the west African nation of a warship belonging to Buenos Aires.
“The president (Cristina Kirchner) has instructed the foreign minister to travel immediately to UN headquarters” in New York, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said on Saturday.
Timerman also said Kirchner decided that all those aboard the ship – Argentine and other nationals – should be evacuated immediately, “leaving on board only the captain and a skeleton crew to take care of it while it remains held” in the Ghanaian port of Tema.
The crew of 326 are mostly Argentine but also include eight sailors from Uruguay, 15 from Chile, and others from Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, South Africa and Venezuela.
“The Argentine government holds the Ghanaian government responsible for any damage the frigate might sustain,” Timerman stressed.
The Libertad, which went to Ghana for a training mission, was seized by port officials in the West African nation on Oct 2 under a court order secured by a Cayman Islands investment group that claims Buenos Aires owes it more than US$370mil (RM1.1bil).
In an effort to resolve the crisis, Argentina sent its deputy ministers of defence and foreign affairs, Alfredo Forti and Eduardo Zuain, to Ghana.
Timerman has said the seizure is illegal, saying the vessel was protected by immunity that Ghana, being a signatory to international conventions, recognises.