Falkands Letter: Argentina's De Kirchner Blasts Blatant British Colonialism [VIDEO + FULL TEXT]

Thirty years after Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has launched a broadside against British "colonialism" and demanded the "Las Malvinas" be returned.

In an emotive open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, Fernández urges the UK to abide by a 1960 United Nations resolution that calls onmember states to "end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations".

Britain should begin negotiations over the sovereignty of the islands, which were "forcibly stripped" from Argentina exactly 180 years ago, on 3 January 1833, she tells the prime minister.

Britain continues to insist that the residents of the Falkland Islands should be granted the right of self-determination. A referendum is to be held in March.

De Kirchner's letter is published as an advert inThursday's Guardian and other newspapers.

Buenos Aires, January 3rd, 2013

Mr Prime Minister David Cameron,

One hundred and eighty years ago on the same date, January 3rd, in a blatant exercise of 19th-century colonialism, Argentina was forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands, which are situated 14,000km (8,700 miles) away from London.

The Argentines on the islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule.

Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity.

The question of the Malvinas Islands is also a cause embraced by Latin America and by a vast majority of peoples and governments around the world that reject colonialism.

In 1960, the United Nations proclaimed the necessity of "bringing to an end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations". In 1965, the General Assembly adopted, with no votes against (not even by the United Kingdom), a resolution considering the Malvinas Islands a colonial case and inviting the two countries to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute between them.

This was followed by many other resolutions to that effect.

In the name of the Argentine people, I reiterate our invitation for us to abide by the resolutions of the United Nations.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
President of the Argentine Republic

Cc: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations

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