Feature: All Argentines yearn for return of Malvinas Islands

BUENOS AIRES, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Malvinas Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic known to English speakers as the Falkland Islands, arouse deep feelings of belonging in the hearts of all Argentines, who yearn to reclaim the territory as their own.

Located 464 kilometers east of mainland Argentina and considered an integral part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, the Malvinas have nevertheless been under British rule since the United Kingdom planted its flag there in 1833.

Reestablishing sovereignty over the islands has become a heartfelt cause all Argentines rally around.

Streets, squares, parks, airports, hospitals and sports stadiums, among other public venues, have been named after the islands in nostalgic tribute. Many women born in 1982, the year Argentina and the United Kingdom warred over the disputed territory, are named "Malvina" or "Soledad," in homage to the archipelago's two main islands.

"For me, the Malvinas are a sentiment. To speak of them is to speak with emotion of an open wound, which will not heal until they are again one hundred percent ours, as they always should be," Mercedes Lorenzetti, 80, told Xinhua.

The residents of the city of Bahia Blanca recalled the military conflict that took place between April 2 and June 14, 1982 to contest the islands, a deadly clash that ended with Argentina's surrender after 74 days of fighting.

"The war was painful and unthinkable. The diplomatic option to resolve the dispute, which is the one that has always been chosen, except in 1982, is the one that must prevail to successfully reclaim the islands," Lorenzetti said.

Argentina's demand for talks with the United Kingdom on the issue of reclaiming sovereignty and respecting the English-speaking islanders' way of life, has had the support of the United Nations since 1965, and has been unanimously promoted by successive Argentine governments regardless of their political leanings.

"The Argentine government permanently maintains the same willingness to continue negotiations on sovereignty with the United Kingdom. However, for almost four decades the United Kingdom has refused to resume negotiations with Argentina to find a peaceful solution to the bilateral dispute over sovereignty," said Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Sola in June.

On June 24, Sola participated in a hearing of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization in New York, which adopted by consensus a resolution that reiterates, as it has every year since 1983, the call for the United Kingdom and Argentina to resume negotiations towards a peaceful and definitive solution to the dispute over the Malvinas.

"The United Kingdom says there will be no sovereignty negotiations unless the inhabitants of the islands so consent. That's how it intends to ignore what was established by the (UN) General Assembly, by citing the right to self-determination of the inhabitants of the Malvinas Islands. This reasoning has no basis in international law and is nothing more than an excuse to preserve its colonial presence in the South Atlantic," said Sola.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry recently highlighted the fact that the islands were seized on Jan. 3, 1833 "by an act of force by the United Kingdom, which illegally occupied the islands, expelling the legitimate Argentine authorities settled there and the existing population."

"Through this usurpation, the homeland's territorial integrity was broken, a situation that no Argentine government has consented to in more than 188 years of history," the ministry added.

Argentinian Maria Perez Salvadores, 66, told Xinhua, "the Malvinas Islands are an Argentine territory and our desire is to once again exercise sovereignty over them. There are historical, political and even geographical reasons that establish that."

"It is a territory that is in front of our coasts, an hour's flight from (the southern city of) Rio Gallegos. Its first authorities were Argentine and then they were displaced by force," she stressed.

The fate of the Malvinas is an ever-present concern of Argentines, who mark the territorial dispute twice a year: April 2, when troops landed in 1982, and June 10, the "Day of the affirmation of Argentine rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands, and surrounding maritime spaces."

This June 10, during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, Frigate Captain Jorge Nicastro, a veteran of the 1982 war, recalled the events in the South Atlantic and expressed his "honor in being able to speak on such a significant date on behalf of the men and women of the sea who heeded the call of the homeland and fought for our sovereign rights."

"We have left a legacy that will be taken up by present and future generations. We must not forget the sacrifice of our compatriots, we must continue our vigil over the Malvinas Islands that were, are and will be Argentine," said Nicastro. Enditem