Argentina demanded that the UK “stop delaying decisions on humanitarian action” for the location of soldiers who died in Malvinas, within the framework of the Humanitarian Project Plan (PPH), which was signed on 16 December 2022.

This request was formalized through “a message sent last Wednesday to the British government through the British embassy in Buenos Aires,” said the secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona.

The note sent stated that the Government of Argentina “regrets the UK’s delay and lack of flexibility in advancing negotiations on the PPH3 instrument, whose signing was originally scheduled by the ICRC for 16 December 2022.”

“Also in the field of humanitarian work, the Government of Argentina would like to remind that it is waiting for a response proposing to start an exchange to determine the visit of relatives to the Darwin Cemetery and also to the San Carlos Strait to pay respects to the fallen on board the Isla de los Estados”, referring to the initiative Argentina promoted in 2022.

And it added that “The Government of Argentina reaffirms, as it has done on several occasions, its desire to move forward with the UK in suspending humanitarian activities within the framework of obligations established by International Humanitarian Law and to provide answers and comfort to families”.

Carmona assessed in dialogue with the agency that “when there is a humanitarian problem, it cannot be used as a bargaining chip or as leverage for anything.”

“To that end, our position has always been to carry out the necessary preparatory work together with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to obtain DNA samples and everything that is implied in the confession process,” the official said.

The Humanitarian Project Plan (PPH) was conceived in three phases and began to be negotiated in 2012, under the then government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The first part of the project was completed in 2016; and then the second was signed in 2021 under the government of Alberto Fernández, and the third part is awaiting signing, which will be finalized in December last year.

“The illegitimate authorities of the Archipelago will not agree. However, we consider that in humanitarian matters issues of agreement or differences of opinion between the government or residents should not be an obstacle because here there are international obligations,” he said.

Carmona explained to this agency that “until August 2022 the UK stated that the sanitary conditions provided did not exist” referring to flights that were supposed to take place during the first half of that year.

“First of all we demand that flights be reopened. We offer humanitarian flights because of displaced people. We propose that they go to relatives and that Punta Arenas Malvinas flights be reopened with a stopover in Río Gallegos,” said Carmona, noting that “Malvinas cannot continue to be isolated.”

He also recalled that “in February 2022 we formalized a request to draft a Humanitarian Plan III for cases requiring commissioning scheduled for 16 December 2022 on Bourbon Island and at the Darwin cemetery.”

“At the same time, our interest was for relatives from humanitarian project II to plan the trip” but “from then on, mistakes started on the British side. In the last quarter of last year we proposed a trip with relatives that would include not only PPH2 but also the mothers and fathers of those who died of old age,” said Carmona.

In addition, the official recalled that the Government is proposing that “relatives of the Isla de los Estados, which sank in the San Carlos Strait, also travel, and we also raised the possibility that other relatives who cannot travel or who need to travel do so for a second time.” time.

At this point, he added that “we got the plane thanks to coordination with Corporación América to facilitate the flight and we made a concrete proposal and the delay also started.”

“On December 16, PPH3 will be signed, and they told us that it was postponed without notice. We are talking about events that happened long before our decision to end the Foradori-Duncan Joint Statement, one thing has nothing to do with the other,” Carmona said.

In this way, he referred to the agreement that Mauricio Macri’s government signed in 2016 with the UK’s representative at the British embassy in Buenos Aires.

Through this pact, which was rejected in March this year by the government of Alberto Fernández, Argentina granted concessions to British interests regarding the exploitation of natural resources in the Malvinas Islands and suffered a setback especially in its claim to sovereignty.

“Time has proven that it has nothing to do with the Foradori-Duncan business because they put the project on hold long ago,” added Carmona.