Is it Malvinas or Falkland?
If you are Argentine you call them Malvinas, if you are British you know this group of islands as the Falkland. In any case the Argentine government has the Malvinas in the agenda. Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana published an op-ed in the Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 arguing his case for their recovery. He basically wants the English government to sit in the negotiation table twenty years after the war Argentina lost.
Britain had occupied and administered the islands since 1833 and had consistently rejected Argentina's territorial claims. In 1982 Argentina invaded the islands starting a war that produced close to a thousand casualties and returned control of the territory to Britain. The total population of the islands is of roughly three thousand people.
posted by Camilo Pino @ 1/05/2006
1 comments
1 Comments:
My own take on the situation adds a new twist that might possibly resolve the matter once and for all. Currently, most countries recognize the island-group as a "protectorate" ... be it of Britain or Argentina. Joint-rule of a territory by two different countries has been attempted in the past, but only with limited success. I think it would be wise for islanders to declare autonomy - to become their own country. Based on democratic vote, islanders can choose the name they like ... and can contract out infrastructure services. If Britain can provide a service cheaper than Argentina, or vice-versa, let the lowest bidder win. And if they were their own country, they needn't limit this contracting to just Britain and Argentina. Japan, for example, might want to provide some services in exchange for access to area fishing rights. Or Spain, for that matter, might be willing to provide naval and military protection in exchange for the same rights. Finally, once autonomy was declared and accepted by the United Nations, the islanders would have their own seat in the General Assembly ... and any military intervention in island affairs would be considered an invasion (perhaps placing sanctions on the invading country). And such an invasion might even be rebuffed by US forces since the US has a financial stake in the island economy (ala Granada).
Autonomy would open up a whole new set of options for islanders.
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