Vandals attack Argentina's war cemetery in the Falkland Islands
(1 Aug 2012) STORYLINE:
Vandals have attacked Argentina's war cemetery in the Falkland Islands, repeatedly smashing and shattering the glass that protects the country's sacred Virgin.
Police are seeking suspects, and the islands' government condemned the crime on Tuesday.
I think all of us would condemn any act of vandalism in what is a war cemetery, Dick Sawle, a member of the islands' legislative assembly, said on Wednesday.
One of things I have learnt in recent trips to the UK, in talking to professional soldiers that were here in 1982 from the English side, is that all soldiers respect each other, and I think it is the sort of action that we would soundly condemn, and we are doing a full investigation into it to find out what's caused it or who's caused it, he added.
Families of the Argentine war dead blamed British hostility for what they called an act of sacrilege.
They have sent letters to Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and Britain's ambassador in Buenos Aires, John Freeman, demanding an urgent and exhaustive investigation.
We believe that reflects escalating hostility by certain British sectors who are influential locally, their commission said in a statement. We will not let up until this repugnant act of sacrilege is clarified.
The Argentine government also condemned the vandalism, demanding that the British government mount an impartial investigation that identifies and punishes those responsible.
The statement made mention of the Falkland Islands Government, which Argentina doesn't recognise, and blamed Britain for provoking the barbaric act with its hostile attitudes.
The vandalism could have happened anytime in the last week or earlier, said Sebastian Socodo, an Argentine who takes care of the cemetery that holds the remains of 237 Argentine combatants killed during the 1982 war between Argentina and Britain.
Images of the damage show the glass front of the monument was broken by more than a dozen sharp blows.
These weren't caused by firearms, these were caused by a blunt object and our crime scene investigators have actually examined this door, said Port Stanley's Police Chief Superintendent, Barry Marsden.
Contrary as to what's been reported already, there was no damage done to the sacred statue, and it was basically criminal damage to the glass.
The Virgin figure, whose blue and white garments are the only expression of Argentine pride permitted in the islands, has been removed to protect it from the elements until the shrine can be repaired.
The remote cemetery has been the focus of attention during this year's 30th anniversary of Argentina's occupation of the islands, but on most days and nights, the lonely hillside more than an hour from the capital of Stanley gets few visitors.
In all, the war claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers, along with three elderly islanders.
Argentina has not given up its claim to islands it calls the Malvinas, despite losing the war, and accuses Britain of ignoring UN resolutions urging sovereignty talks.
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Antarctic Cruise - Stanley, Falkland Islands, January 20, 2001
Our second day in the Falkland Islands continued with a walking tour of Stanley.
Read the narrative and see the still photos from the cruise at
1914 Great War Memorial Stanley Falkland Islands
recorded on March 6, 2013
Moving Image Archive Serge de Muller
Going Home (Leaving Stanley in the Falkland Islands)
A song written just before leaving Stanley in the Falklands Island after the conflict in 1982. Written and performed by Trevor L Courtman. There is a short gap about 30 seconds into the video, apologies for this, not sure what happened :/. Comments welcome :)
RR0223/A Falklands: Anniversary
SHOTLIST
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands (Recent): town scenes, seabirds, penguins, shipwreck, town of Stanley, flags in window, darts competition. SOT: Kevin Clapp, hillside outside Stanley, Argentinian mortars, minefields; (File) various 1982 Falklands War fighting; Goose Green (Recent): village, memorial service on hill, SOT: Neil Hewitt, witness to Goose Green, sheep; Stanley (Recent): SOT: Donald Lamont, Governor, Falkland Islands, trawlers with squid, Councillors' office, council meeting, SOT: Janet Cheek, Council Member; Mount Pleasant Air Force Base (Recent): military personnel at base; Stanley (Recent): SOT: Donald Lamont, Governor, Falkland Islands; Argentina cemetery; Stanley (Recent): sign in house window, SOT: Phillip Miller, Council member, town scene, harbour, sunset (APTN)
STORYLINE
Twenty years after Argentina invaded the Falklands, British residents on the islands worry that Argentina's current economic instability could lead to another coup with the possibility of another invasion
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Reaction from Argentina and the Falklands after former PM Margaret Thatcher dies
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
1. Wide of Government House, Union flag flying at half mast
2. Close-up of flag flying at half mast
3. Low shot of flowers placed next to street sign reading: (English) Thatcher Drive
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mike Summers, Member of Legislative Assembly, Government of Falkland Islands:
It's a very sad day for the people of the Falkland Islands. Mrs Thatcher is obviously very well remembered and well loved for being the person who led the liberation of the Falklands in 1982. There were probably few people around in political life who could have done what she put together. And she will ever be remembered for that.
5. Pan across Liberation monument
6. Close-up of inscription on monument reading: (English) In memory of those who liberated us, 14 June 1982
7. Wide of monument, flag flying at half mast in background
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Smith, Local Historian:
++TILT UP FROM PICTURES ON TABLE++
Despite one's political feelings, you just had to give the woman here due because she was like a dose of salts going round the Falklands for four days, wherever she stopped or saw people, she got in among them and she was unstoppable and after four days, she left as secretly as she'd arrived.
9. Various of flags flying at half mast
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sybie Summers, Shopkeeper:
I heard it on the news this morning and think it's very sad to think that she's passed away because she is, always will be the 'Iron Lady' to us and if wasn't for her, we probably, I probably wouldn't be here today.
11. Mid of flag flying at half mast
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Phil Middleton, Shopkeeper:
I never had any doubt of the outcome, simply because there was an extremely strong, very high principled leader in charge of the whole operation.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
13. Wide of Plaza de Mayo, main square
14. Various of man looking at reconstruction of Argentine cemetery on the Falkland islands, in Plaza de Mayo
15. Mid of reconstructed cemetery
16. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Vox pop, Miguel Lopez, Buenos Aires resident:
Much injustice, much anger and also a little hate, for the loss of so many Argentine lads and for that, I feel this anger still today. Here just behind me you can see the sort of tombs of the young guys that died in Malvinas, because of the war that this woman caused.
17. Wide of reconstructed Argentine cemetery
18. Wide of people in square
STORYLINE:
Falkland Islanders reacted on Monday to the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Government official Mike Summers said it was a very sad day for residents.
As Prime Minister, Thatcher ordered British troops to regain the South Atlantic Islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas, following an invasion by Argentina on 2 April 1982.
The 74-day war left 649 Argentine soldiers dead, along with 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders.
Mrs Thatcher is obviously very well remembered and well loved for being the person who led the liberation of the Falklands in 1982, said Summers.
There were probably few people around in political life who could have done what she put together. And she will ever be remembered for that.
The cluster of islands 8-thousand miles (12,800 kilometres) from Britain was home to 1,800 people in 1982 when Argentina attempted to take back the Islands which had been under British rule for 150 years.
Thatcher dispatched a British task force of 28-thousand troops and more than 100 vessels which fought against 12-thousand soldiers and 40 ships from Argentina on land and sea.
Business owner Sybie Summers added that Thatcher will always be remembered as the Iron Lady.
If wasn't for her, we probably, I probably wouldn't be here today, she said.
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San Carlos, Falkland Islands
Peter Snow describes the selection and terrain at San Carlos
People visiing Argentine cemetery in the Falklands
(3 Apr 2012) 1. Low shot of graves marked with crosses inside cemetery for fallen Argentine soldiers
2. Close-up of cross hanging on grave stone
3. Close-up of plaque inside cemetery reading: (Spanish) In memory of those who fell in honour on the Malvinas Battlefields. Eternal glory to our heroes! From the Argentine people to its fallen.
4. Wide of two people walking towards cemetery
5. Wide of Argentine journalist Alejandra Conti walking through cemetery, grave stones in foreground
6. Mid of Conti reading note left on grave stone cross
7. Close-up of note laid on grave stone
8. Close-up of note dated 2012 that begins with the words: (Spanish) To my dear brother, these lines that I write to you today�
9. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Alejandra Conti, Argentine journalist:
It really generates a lot of emotions for us, for an Argentine to come here to this place. It is very sad, because it's empty on 2 April.
10. Low shot of man walking through cemetery
11. Close-up of picture on grave stone of fallen Argentine soldier Raul Adrian Gomez
12. Close-up of grave stone inscribed: (Spanish) Argentine Soldier, Known Only to God
13. Mid of man walking past plaques
14. Wide of empty cemetery
STORYLINE:
The Argentine cemetery on the Falkland Islands was almost empty on Monday, 2 April, the date that marks the thirtieth anniversary of Argentina's invasion of the islands and the beginning of the Falklands War.
Argentina's 74-day occupation of the Islands ended when British troops routed the ill-prepared Argentines in hard-fought trench warfare.
More than 230 gravestones, for Argentine soldiers killed in the conflict, stand in the isolated Argentine Military Cemetery, which sits more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the capital Port Stanley.
No veterans from the South American country were able to make the pilgrimage to the site on the anniversary, it is understood.
It is often visited on other days.
Falkland Islands visitor and Argentine journalist Alejandra Conti stopped by the cemetery to pay her respects and look over the names on the graves, some of which simply read Argentine soldier, known only to God.
Others bore recent evidence of visits from loved ones.
Conti said the anniversary made her visit to the cemetery especially poignant.
It really generates a lot of emotions for us, for an Argentine to come here to this place. It is very sad, because it's empty on 2 April, she said.
Following the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, the country's leaders made the decision to leave their fallen soldiers in the cemeteries that were dedicated to them by the British Government of Margaret Thatcher.
Argentina has been intensifying its campaign to pressure Britain into sovereignty talks, a theme it pushes in every international forum.
Its historical claim to the Falkland Islands, which Latin America knows as Las Malvinas, has support across the region.
On Monday, President Cristina Fernandez urged Britain to concede sovereignty of the islands.
However, polls show little appetite among Argentines for a military solution.
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1982 Liberation Memorial Stanley Falkland Islands
recorded on March 6, 2013
Moving Image Archive Serge de Muller
San Carlos Cemetery in the Falklands
Some time spent in the British Cemetery at San Carlos. Lt Col H Jones lies here.
Darwin Cemetery desecrated in Falkland/Malvinas Islands
The Darwin Cemetery, where the bodies of the Argentine soldiers who died in 1982 during the war against the United Kingdom over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands are burried, was desecrated by a group of people who have not been identified so far. teleSUR
Aftermath of the Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands.
The aftermath of the Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands.
FALKLAND ISLANDS: ARGENTINE VETERAN OF 1982 WAR RETURNS
Span/Eng/Nat
An historic visit to the Falklands islands this week has been an emotional one for the Argentine veterans of the 1982 war with Britain.
The islands remained British as a result of the war and Anglo-Argentine relations have since been slow to recover.
But for Jorge Taranto, a 25-year-old soldier at the time of the war, the visit has allowed him for the first time to honour the dead at their gravesides and to reunite with islanders who once helped save his life.
Jorge Taranto has waited 17 years for this.
He fought here for sovereignty in the Anglo-Argentine war and could not return following Argentina's defeat in 1982
Relations between the two countries are slowly gathering strength once again but this is the first unrestricted visit by any Argentine to the Falkland Islands since an agreement signed in July this year.
At last, Jorge can return to the town where he was based during the war, Port Howard.
He was 25 at the time.
Seventeen years later, he wishes to honour the men on both sides who fell and to reunite with the islanders he remembers.
Rodney Lee, a local farmer, took him on a tour of the town.
UPSOUND: (English)
I don't know. It wasn't a very nice experience for us. We try to forget it all now.
SUPER CAPTION: Rodney Lee, Farmer
The emotional shock of returning to where he once fought was plain to see.
There is a museum in Port Stanley now which houses the evidence of a war.
The remnants of what Argentina left behind in her defeat have since become objects of history and placed there.
These are records which help Jorge relive the past.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
This is the name of the place where I was based, Port Yapeyu.
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Taranto, Argentine veteran
The issue of sovereignty in the Falkland Islands still remains a sensitive one.
Argentina has yet to give up her territorial claim and islanders have been suspicious of their new visitors since their arrival on Saturday.
But there is hope for peace and reconciliation.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
I think this is a very big step probably towards reconciliation. I guess I've never been one to hate the Argentines. I hated what they did and I hated the people who brought it about but I never hated Argentines so I bear no grudges against somebody who was here. As I said, I bear my grudges against the Argentine government of the time, the junta of the time.
SUPER CAPTION: Rodney Lee, Farmer
Jorge is able to revisit the same place where he lived and where so little has since changed.
UPSOUND: (Spanish)
Here, I was taking a bath during an air attack once with nothing but my helmet on.
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Taranto, Argentine veteran
But, despite the pain or reliving the past, Jorge said his visit had been reassuring.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
I'm glad to be here. I think it is very important for all veterans to come here like this. It's like finding yourself. All of us, each and everyone of us, lost something fighting for this land.
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Taranto, Argentine veteran
He also visited a graveyard Wednesday where six Argentines lie buried alongside SAS captain John Hamilton.
UPSOUND: (Spanish)
He is a dead soldier and I have respect for dead soldiers.
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Taranto, Argentine veteran
There is little stomach yet on the island for any nationalist expression from visiting Argentines.
But their presence alone and the acceptance from islanders towards them is a sign that some of the wounds have begun to heal.
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20th anniversary of liberation of Falklands
Port Stanley - May 30, 2002
1. Various of memorial being prepared for remembrance day
FILE - 1982
2. Various of bombing during war
3. Soldiers climbing hillside
4. Building being bombed
5. Soldiers marching through street
6. Little girl waving from window
Port Stanley - 14 June 1982
7. Port Stanley being liberated as Union Jack (British flag) is erected on top of building
8. People cheering in the streets
Mount Harriet - May 26, 2002
9. Remains of Argentine mortar positions
10. Various of munitions
11. Shoes piled up on rock
12. Various of mine fields
Port Stanley - June 1, 2002
13. Car driving along street
14. Union Jack in window
15. Street sign reading Thatcher Drive
16. House with sign in window
17. Close up of sign in house which reads: To the Argentine nation and people - you will be welcome in our country when you drop your sovereignty claim and recognise our rights to self determination.
Port Stanley - May 25, 2002
18. Various of darts competition in local bar
19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kevin Clapp, Falkland Islander
If Argentina would be willing to drop their sovereignty claim then we would have welcomed them with open arms but we really want to stay British. We're keen on the queen and country and we just want to stay British.
Goose Green - May 29, 2002
20. Local people gathering for memorial service to commemorate British soldiers who died in war
21. Various of service
22. Last post being sounded, soldiers salute
23. Wreaths being laid
24. Bagpiper playing
25. More of wreaths being laid
26. Mid shot of bagpipers and soldiers at memorial
27. Various of Argentine cemetery
Port Stanley - May 30, 2002
28. Sunset
STORYLINE:
Falkland Islanders on Friday will commemorate the day the tiny south Atlantic island was freed from a short period of occupation from neighbouring Argentina two decades earlier.
The United Kingdom has sovereignty over the islands, and its current population of 24-hundred remains almost entirely of British heritage. It's something its residents are proud of, and keen to hang on to.
But Argentina has long laid claim to the islands, known to them as the Malvinas, based on the fact they inherited a small Spanish settlement there after independence in 1816. The British expelled the Argentines from the islands 17 years later.
On April 2, 1982, Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the invasion of the Falklands after tiring of ongoing negotiations with Britain and in an effort to boost the popularity of his flagging regime.
In response, Britain's then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, sent troops on the 12-thousand kilometre journey to the Falklands to reclaim the islands as British.
The ensuring war lasted just 74 days, but hundreds of British and Argentine troops were killed in battle.
On Goose Green, the scene of the fiercest fighting, the Islanders lay wreaths to commemorate the British soldiers who lost their lives defending the small nations' self-determination.
Nearby, the Argentine cemetery is a quiet remembrance to those who were killed carrying out Galtieri's orders.
Britain has since kept a sizeable military presence on the islands to deter any future invasion from Argentina, however unlikely that may seem.
Meantime, the Islanders proudly display their Union Jacks (the British flag) and say they bear the Argentines no ill will - but just want to be left alone to carry on being British.
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Stanley House Stanley Falkland Islands
recorded on March 6, 2013
Moving Image Archive Serge de Muller
Falklands 30th 22SAS Memorial
In loving memory of the Soldiers of 22SAS who lost their lives in the Falklands Conflict 1982.
A-Sqn.com
Red Cross to begin ID of Argentine troop remains
(1 Jun 2017) A team of forensic experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that it's about to start identifying the remains of 123 Argentine soldiers buried in a Falklands Island cemetery after the 1982 war.
Argentina lost a brief but bloody conflict with Britain after Argentine troops invaded the South Atlantic archipelago.
Both countries reached a deal last year to identify the remains of the fallen soldiers.
Red Cross officials said on Thursday that the process will begin on June 19.
We're realistic and not naive; identifying 100 percent of them will not be possible, Laurent Corbaz, who heads the project for the Red Cross, said in a press conference in Buenos Aires.
Ten 10 forensic experts will carry out the exhumations and the remains will be collected at a laboratory near Darwin Cemetery.
They will then be sent to Argentina, where they will be compared with DNA samples from family members of some of the fallen soldiers.
Laboratories in Britain and Spain will also be involved in this process.
Corbaz said that the team expects several challenges, including a lack of DNA presence in the remains since the land where they were buried is acidic and not good for the preservation of bodies.
He also said that the remains of several soldiers were buried in one of the 123 tombs, complicating identification.
In all, the war claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers.
The South American country still claims the islands that it calls the Malvinas. Britain says the Falklands are a self-governing entity under its protection.
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The Falkland Frontier
A 25 minute surf adventure film to the land of penguins and landmines. The Long Brothers, Jesse Colombo, Peter Garaway and Senior Staff Photography of Surfing Magazine, Russ Hennings lead a young guns crew to once war torn land of Falkland Islands nestled at the tip of Argentina only 1000 miles north of Antarctica to discover the incredibly the friendly friendly, freezing temperatures, off road charging, the only nightlife in town and the search for surf.
Falklanders, Argentine veterans prepare to remember conflict
(1 Apr 2012) PARTLY MUTE
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands - 1 April, 2012
1. Wide of Port Stanley at sunrise
2. Pan of Port Stanley at sunrise
3. Wide of people walking down Main Street
4.Union Jack displayed in window of house
5. Falkland Islands flag flying in front of house
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Marie Lou Agman, Resident of Port Stanley:
After the 30 years and now we find it again. We are worried we are going to go through it again, another invasion, no, we no - we no want to see this. The island no want to see this again.
7. Wide of monument to the fallen British soldiers ++mute++
8. Close of monument
9. Tourists looking at monument
10. Close of small crosses dedicated to British military war ships during the Falklands War
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Megan Griffiths, Welsh tourist:
They are so British here and from everybody we've met, they are so proud of being British. And we hope that it remains that way.
Santiago, Chile - 31 March, 2012
12. Wide of people queuing to board plane
13. Close of screen saying Mount Pleasant (airport on Falkland Islands) ++mute++
14. Mid Juan Carlos Lujan, Argentine Veteran, talking with colleagues at airport while awaiting flight to Falkland Islands ++mute++
15. Close Lujan talking ++mute++
16. Close Lujan holding his Argentine passport ++mute++
17. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Juan Carlos Lujan, Falklands War veteran:
The truth is that there are a lot of emotions, because I am reliving something that was, during its moment, a mixture of emotion, of fear, of many things thrown together, and today it still seems hard to believe that I am actually returning to the islands.
18. Close of air steward taking boarding cards from people ++mute++
19. Wide of Juan Carlos going through boarding gate ++mute++
STORYLINE:
Falkland Island residents prepared on Sunday to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the short but bloody war in 1982 that began with the Argentine incursion on the British-administered South Atlantic cluster of Islands, a conflict that continues to resonate with islanders.
Renewed tensions between Britain and Argentina have some in the community concerned, and islanders still feel they need an extensive military garrison, with warships and a nuclear submarine circling somewhere in the deep, to protect them from their Latin American neighbour.
We are worried we are going to go through it again, another invasion said local resident Marie Lou Agnon.
Argentina's government has been trying to use diplomatic and economic power to force Britain into sovereignty talks ahead of the April 2 anniversary of Argentina's 1982 invasion of the islands, which are known in Latin America as the Islas Malvinas.
Many British people have travelled to the island to commemorate the events that saw 649 Argentines, 255 British and three islanders killed.
Megan Griffiths, a tourist from Wales, stressed the Britishness of the Falkland islanders she had met on her visit.
They are so British here and from everybody we've met, they are so proud of being British, and we hope that it remains that way, she said.
Islanders will turn out for a march by the Falkland Islands Defence Force later on Sunday, remembering the day their local militia mobilised just ahead of
the invasion, while Argentines hold vigil at their Monument to the Fallen, in Ushuaia, capital of the country's southernmost province.
On Monday, Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez will be in Ushuaia as well, leading rallies nationwide that honour the veterans as heroes and press her country's claim.
Former members of the vanquished Argentine military ranks began a return journey on Saturday to the islands to pay tribute to their compatriots who died in the war.
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TRT World - World in Focus: The Falklands on the News
The Falklands: whose islands are they?
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean consisting of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. They have been at the center of a diplomatic dispute between Britain and Argentina for decades and the subject of a brief war in 1982. The islands recently made the news once more when an Argentine federal judge in June ordered the seizure of the assets of five oil drilling companies totaling $156 million in bank accounts, boats and other property, in addition to ordering the firms to stop their exploration activities. While foreign oil drilling companies do not generally hold any assets in Argentina or use Argentine waters, Argentina launched the lawsuit nevertheless. Daniel Filmus - the Argentine government minister responsible for the islands - claimed in April that “All exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on the Argentine continental shelf without Argentine authorisation is illegal.”
A Deadly Dispute
Argentina calls the Falklands Las Malvinas and maintains its claims over the islands. In the post-World War II era, Argentinian President Juan Peron asserted sovereignty over the archipelago. The dispute between Britain and Argentina escalated in the 1960s and in the following years Britain and Argentina secretly negotiated over the fate of the islands. During the early Thatcher government in Britain concerns about the cost of maintaining the islands led to a reconsideration of transferring sovereignty to Argentina. However, the talks over handing over the islands ended by 1981 and the dispute intensified. Argentina invaded the islands in April 1982. In the ensuing war between Argentina and Britain, 600 Argentine soldiers and 255 British servicemen were killed. Britain retook the islands in June 1982.
The Current Outlook
The Falkland Islands are now under British administration as an overseas territory. Thanks to the British Nationality Act of 1983, passed after the Falklands War, the islanders are now British citizens. The around 3,000 residents of the Falklands voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining under British rule in a referendum in 2013. Despite the desire of the Falklanders for the islands remain a British territory, Argentina does not recognise the Falkland Islands as a partner in negotiations and disagrees that the islanders have a right to self determination. The dispute over the Falkland Islands looks like it will continue to be a prominent issue between Argentina and Britain for years to come with no easy resolution in sight.
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