Falklands Islands issue raised by Argentina at UN, urges UK to talk
Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took her country's claim to the Falkland Islands to the United Nations on Thursday in a very emotional speech and urged Britain to again try to resolve the conflict.
Addressing the UN Committee on Decolonisation on the 30th anniversary of Britain's ouster of an Argentine invasion force from the Falklands, Kirchner asked Britain to "act more intelligently" and sit down to talk about the future of the tiny archipelago located off Argentina's coast in the South Atlantic Ocean.
She said history and geography backed her country's claim of the islands.
"We're not asking that we're told we are right, we're just asking to talk," she said. "We are not asking for anyone to say, yes, the Malvinas are Argentinas: We are asking for no more, no less, than to sit down at a table and talk."
Argentina claims Britain has illegally occupied the islands since 1833, which Britain has contested, saying the island's 3,000 residents have expressed a desire to remain British. Argentina says the residents do not have the unilateral right to decide the status of the islands.
In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falklands -- known as the Malvinas in Argentina leading to a war in which more than 600 Argentinian and 255 British troops died. Britain then retained control of the islands.
In her passionate testimony Thursday, Kirchner said that Britain does not have a rightful historical claim to the islands, and added that geographically it makes no sense.
"How can it be claimed with 14,000 kilometers away, that this territory is part of British territory?" she said.
In London, Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to defend the Falklands against new "aggression" and said there could be no negotiations over sovereignty.
Source: Argentina News.Net
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