THE SUN newspaper has taken out a full-page advertisement in an English-language newspaper in Argentina, carrying an open letter to the country’s president asking her to drop her country’s claims to control of the Falkland Islands.
The advertisement, which appears in the Buenos Aires Herald, follows the latest diplomatic exchanges between president Christina Fernandez de Kirchner and British prime minister David Cameron over the status of the disputed islands.
The ads follow an open letter written by Fernandez in which she demanded negotiations with Britain, under the terms of a UN resolution from 1965, to come up with a mutually agreeable solution.
Cameron responded by ruling out any prospect of having the islands transferred to Argentine control.
London, January 3, 2012President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
Thirty-one years ago this year, Argentina invaded the Falklands Islands, with the loss of 256 British service personnel, 649 Argentinian troops and three civilian Falklanders.
This action was in direct conflict with the United Nations charter’s principle of self-determination in which the people of the Falkland Islands are British and have chosen to be so.
Self-determination is a fundamental human right for all peoples.
Claims that 180 years ago Argentina was “stripped” of the Falkland Islands are unfounded.
No Argentinian civilian population was ever expelled. It was an Argentine garrison which had been sent to the islands to try to impose Argentine sovereignty over British sovereign territory.
British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1766 – before the Republic of Argentina even existed.
The islands have never been governed by or formed part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Argentina.
Until the people of the Falkland Islands choose to become Argentinian, they remain resolutely British.
In the name of our millions of readers, and to put it another way: ‘HANDS OFF’.
The Sun
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