SEGUN LOS MALVINENSE TIMMERMAN SE DESEPERA EN NACIONES UNIDAS

 Falklands describe Timerman s UN Visit as Diplomacy of Desperation
By J. Brock (FINN) Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman has met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Ecuador s Ambassador to the United States, Diego Morejón Pazmiño, who is also chairman of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation. He was joined by Ecuadorean José Beraún Araníbar Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro and Peru s deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. In response to the visit to the United Nations by the Argentine Foreign Minister, Falkland Islands Assembly member Gavin Short said that last week two members of the Legislative Assembly, Sharon Halford and Mike Summers visited the United Nations in New York to discuss the results of the Falkland Islands referendum and to hand over a letter to the Secretary General. This letter reiterated that the Falkland Islands people have no wish to be governed by Argentina and that we value our constitutional links to the UK. It is a relationship founded on free choice.
Having emphasized the meetings are a favourable opportunity to expose the reasons of the illegality of the referendum held recently by Falklands residents to reaffirm their intention to remain a British Overseas Territory the Foreign Ministry stressed that no regional country has recognized the referendum as legitimate and legislators from more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries supported Argentina s position against the referendum at the 128th Assembly of the World Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Ecuador.
It is disappointing though not surprising that Mr Timerman seems so anxious to discredit our referendum, said Gavin Short of the Falklands Legislative Assembly. The Argentine Government Suggestions that the Falklands referendum was illegal and that it contravenes UN resolutions, or that the Falkland Islanders are proscribed by the UN from discussions on the future of our Island home, are all absurd and untrue, he continued.
Describing Mr Timerman s efforts as frantic, Mr Short went on to say that to lobby the international community and to ignore our voice strikes him and the Islanders as the diplomacy of desperation.
Ban Ki-moon recently argued that people living under certain conditions should have a certain level of capacities so that they can decide their own future , be it independence or some kind of government in their territories. Last December he also insisted that the UN hopes the conflict can be resolved through dialogue, adding he was concerned about the strong statements exchange between Argentina and the United Kingdom .