Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Marcos Timerman is to lodge a protest at the UN on Friday against the UK's "militarisation" of the Falklands
( Read more... )
Legally, the right to self-determination can only be applied to the indigenous inhabitants of a place...which the current residents of the islands are not. If anything, they're two steps removed from being eligible for self-determination, not one - they're technically not even the colonists who settled the place. The British presence in the Falklands/Malvinas came about because they turned up to an Argentinean settlement that already existed and made the inhabitants leave under threat of being immediately flattened by Royal Navy ships
( ... )
Hey, I don't actually care who holds the islands. I just think it should be decided by some sort of international tribunal with legal weight, rather than "Well, we hold it now, it's gone, you're never getting it back so there's nothing to discuss."
In either case, you're referencing a principle of self-determination which quite frankly does not apply here. It was meant for nations subjugated by empires, not colonizers, and to extend it to cover any current settlers in an area has pretty undesirable implications = you could claim territory by displacing the pre-existing population.
(I left Argentina when I was ten years old. I live in Britain now, with a husband seconded to the British army...honestly, I'd like this resolved so it doesn't flare up into war again one day. That's all.)
I just don't see Argentina's claim having any merit at all frankly. At least as I understand it, the island never had any indigenous people, nor were Argentia even the original country to discover the island
Yeah different countries might have laid claim to it before the British settlement stuck, but it's been a loooooong time since then and IMO the current islanders who have lived there for generations should be the final ones to decide. I don't see what it is to do with Argentina any more just because they had a brief claim on the islands two centuries ago :shrugs:
All Argentina's been asking for is a trip to the UN, to decide what is fundamentally a legal question. That's not exactly an unreasonable request. Clearly there's something to discuss, or it wouldn't be a sore point between the two countries - I'm living in a British military town and I've heard more about the Stupid Bloody Islands in the last six months than I did in the roughly twenty five years preceding it, it's driving me batshit to get the rude comments! I didn't exactly choose my homeland!
Everyone can put their case for sovereignty. They'll get a ruling...and having asked for this ruling, if it falls in Britain's favour, Argentina will have to accept that.
Reply
Legally, the right to self-determination can only be applied to the indigenous inhabitants of a place...which the current residents of the islands are not. If anything, they're two steps removed from being eligible for self-determination, not one - they're technically not even the colonists who settled the place. The British presence in the Falklands/Malvinas came about because they turned up to an Argentinean settlement that already existed and made the inhabitants leave under threat of being immediately flattened by Royal Navy ships ( ... )
Reply
Yes, it's quite obvious.
Reply
In either case, you're referencing a principle of self-determination which quite frankly does not apply here. It was meant for nations subjugated by empires, not colonizers, and to extend it to cover any current settlers in an area has pretty undesirable implications = you could claim territory by displacing the pre-existing population.
(I left Argentina when I was ten years old. I live in Britain now, with a husband seconded to the British army...honestly, I'd like this resolved so it doesn't flare up into war again one day. That's all.)
Reply
Yeah different countries might have laid claim to it before the British settlement stuck, but it's been a loooooong time since then and IMO the current islanders who have lived there for generations should be the final ones to decide. I don't see what it is to do with Argentina any more just because they had a brief claim on the islands two centuries ago :shrugs:
Reply
Everyone can put their case for sovereignty. They'll get a ruling...and having asked for this ruling, if it falls in Britain's favour, Argentina will have to accept that.
Problem solved.
Reply
Leave a comment