But in Argentina, mob targets our embassy
PROTESTERS clashed with riot police after trying to storm the British Embassy in Argentina yesterday.
Masked militants burned Union Jacks and threw rocks and firebombs at armed officers protecting the building in Buenos Aires. The riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Mobs also burnt effigies of Prince William, who recently completed a six-week posting to the Falklands as an RAF search and rescue pilot.
The violence erupted as members of hardline Left-wing group Quebracho reached the building after a noisy march through the Argentine capital.
Elsewhere, in an angry speech to mark the 30th anniversary of the invasion, Argentina’s president accused Britain of being ‘colonialist’ and violating human rights by holding on to the Falklands.
Cristina Kirchner claimed it was ‘ridiculous and absurd’ that the UK still retains ownership of the islands and said Britain was pillaging the oil resources of her country.
Speaking in Argentina’s southernmost city Ushuaia, she said: ‘It’s an injustice that in the 21st century, colonial enclaves exist like the one we have here just a few kilometres away.
‘We demand justice so Britain doesn’t continue to pillage our environment and natural resources.’
But in a sign that Argentina would not try to regain by force the islands it calls Las Malvinas, she added: ‘We don’t want helmets for our soldiers; we want them for our workers.’
She demanded that David Cameron negotiate a transfer of power. But the Prime Minister insisted Britain was no less committed now than in 1982 to protecting the islanders’ right to self-determination.
Mrs Kirchner did strike a conciliatory note over the servicemen who died on both sides, saying the war brought nothing but pain and criticising the country’s disgraced military dictators for invading the islands.
Britain has 1,000-plus troops garrisoned on the islands, plus four RAF Typhoon fighter jets on standby to repel any invasion. Four Royal Navy warships are on patrol in the area.
One, HMS Montrose, will be replaced by HMS Dauntless, one of the Navy’s newest and most powerful warships, which leaves Portsmouth tomorrow – a day before the 30th anniversary of the British Task Force setting sail.