Argentine Falklands War troops 'tortured by their own side'

Argentine soldiers were subjected to abuse and torture by their own superiors during the 1982 Falklands War against Britain, files released by Argentina's armed forces reveal.
They are the first official documents from the conflict to be made public and contain testimonies from soldiers who say they were poorly equipped and cold.
They say they were severely beaten for leaving the trenches to look for food.
The conflict over the islands cost the lives of more than 900 soldiers.
For years, war veterans have complained about the terrible conditions during the conflict, including lack of proper boots and coats, says the BBC's Ignacio de los Reyes in Buenos Aires.
The previously secret files describe mock executions and soldiers being tied up inside empty graves.
A lieutenant describes how another officer tied his hands and legs to this back and left him face down on the wet sand of a cold Falklands beach for eight hours.
A sergeant says he had to be operated on after being kicked in the testicles.
"These documents lift the veil on facts that were hidden for so many years by the armed forces," said Ernesto Alonso, from a veterans group in La Plata.Read more HERE 

(RG) If these Fascist storm troopers treat their own men like this imagine how the inhabitants of the  Falkland Islands would have been treated, I know some Argentinian officers wanted to exterminate all of the Islanders, the blood of the NAZIS is certainly in the Argentine people.

Falklands war general arrested for crimes against humanity

Mario Menéndez, the army general who led and surrendered Argentine troops in the Falklands War, has been arrested for his alleged role in crimes against humanity perpetrated by the 1976-83 military dictatorship.Mr Menéndez, military governor of the Falklands during the conflict, was detained on Wednesday night at his home in Buenos Aires.
He will be transferred from a jail in the capital to the northern province of Tucumán, where the crimes took place, the Ministry of Security said.
Mr Menéndez, 82, was arrested together with 15 other people for their suspected participation in 'Operation Independence', one of the first operations of the dictatorship's 'Dirty War' against left-wing subversion.
An estimated 30,000 people were 'disappeared' – kidnapped and murdered – by the regime.
Mr Menéndez is expected to be put on the stand in a trial next month that will seek to bring to justice those involved in 'Operation Independence'.
Read More  HERE  


(RG) He should also be tried as a War criminal for crimes against the people of the Falkland Islands.

Fifty years since Falklands incursion and landing by Argentine light aircraft

This Monday is the fiftieth anniversary of an odd stunt by Argentine Cessna pilot Miguel Fitzgerald who landed his light aircraft on the Stanley racecourse, left a note of protest about the ‘illegal’ British occupation of the Falkland Islands, handed an Argentine flag to a bemused bystander, and flew away again.Fitzgerald’s story was recorded by a number of newspapers in 1964, and he told them the idea of flying to the Islands was not a new one. Speaking of his exploits, he said in fact that pilots who flew from the Argentine Monte Grande airfield spoke of it often, although it was generally considered a kind of joke or prank idea. However it was one that had been in Fitzgerald’s head for fourteen years he told one interviewer.
His was not the first attempt though, in 1952, Aldo Comi along with Cesar Alvarez, an Aerodrome flight instructor, had departed from Rio Grande with a flight plan to Ushuaia. Once in the air they announced they were cancelling the flight plan filed and were heading to the Falklands; but weather prevented them landing.
They lost sight of the Islands and in a seven hour flight returned to Comodoro Rivadavia. But why September 1964? Read more HERE  

Miguel Fitzgerald  was lucky he didn't get a Rapier missile up his arse.

WHY THE HELL DO WE GIVE OUR ENEMY ARGENTINA OVERSEAS AID?

The British designed Argentine missile destroyer ARA “Santísima Trinidad,” that participated in the Falklands conflict in 1982 and has been out of service since 2004 moored at the Puerto Belgrano Navy base, is currently SUNK!

"Do we give Argentina  £2million  in aid, so they can fix their ships , so that we can sink them again? A ludicrous question you may think? I agree as ludicrous as giving a Country that hates Britain and wants to take by force the Falklands Islands our hard earned Tax money. "

Ever heard the Great Argentine myth.

Ever heard the Great Argentine myth that Britain expelled a whole Argentine population from the Falklands in 1833?

It is something that a lot of Argentines have been risen with and so many think it is true, but actually... it's not.

What actually happened was an Argentine military garrison was told to leave but the civilian residents were actually encouraged to stay.

Only 5 civilian settlers chose to return to what is now present day Argentina. In 1833 Argentina was 1,000 miles from the Falklands, now because of territory gains like with Patagonia, it is 320 miles away.

And this was not an illegitimate act by the British because when HMS Clio arrived in 1833 it was to reassert British sovereignty over the islands that was first declared in 1765 and had later been solidified in the 1771 Anglo-Spanish agreement. Argentina had attempted to illegitimately annex the islands.

So the Argentine claim that Britain expelled the Argentine population from the Falklands in 1833 is false.

WERE ARGENTINE CONSCRIPTS TORTURED IN THE FALKLANDS WAR?

Under the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the allegation that Argentine army officers and NCOs abused and killed their own troops in the Falklands War has repeatedly made the headlines of several newspapers. "Our own officers were our greatest enemies" , says Ernesto Alonso, the president of CECIM, a left-wing veterans group founded by Rodolfo Carrizo and other conscripts of the 7th Regiment. "They supplied themselves with whiskey from the pubs, but they weren't prepared for war. "They disappeared when things got serious." (Argentina's Falklands War Veterans. 'Cannon Fodder in a War We Couldn't Win'. By Jens Glüsing, Spiegel.de, 4 March 2007)

But the former officers, including British historian Jon Cooksey, maintain that the conscripts were helped to make themselves as comfortable as possible under the circumstances and that their officers and NCOs fought well and tried hard to bolster morale. Major Carlos Eduardo Carrizo-Salvadores, second-in-command of the 7th Infantry Regiment, would later explain that he did his best to arrange some measure of comfort for his men on Mount Longdon: "We took good care of the personnel. We did what we could do to set an example. Captain Eduardo Lopez [the company commander] was there with the platoons, with news-updates and nougat bars. The soldiers had everything you can imagine in their kitbags, including thermos flasks and transistor radios. Some of the soldiers heard that the British had disembarked at San Carlos and captured Goose Green by tuning radios on to the BBC. In the mornings the soldiers had a mug of the green Guarani herb 'mate' which contains around the same amount of caffein as a cup of coffee; it is stimulating and helps register a feeling of fullness. Meals were served in the open and consumed in mugs. I remember that mutton and pasta figured largely on the menu. There was a strict ration of one ratpack per man per week, eaten slowly to make it last." (Mount Longdon: The Argentinian Story, By David Aldea for britains-smallwars.com) Major Oscar Ramón Jaimet, the Operations Officer of the 6th Infantry Regiment would later say that the platoon commanders in his company shared the same wartime privations of the ordinary conscripts:
"Over there, everyone took the same risks, shared the same privations and tasks, suffered from the cold and shared the same foxholes that would fill with water. There has been a tendency to create differences - or make us believe - in the experiences of the officers, NCOs and privates. My platoon commanders (second lieutenants Aldo Franco, Augusto La Madrid, Guillermo Robredo and Guillermo Corbella) would sleep alongside the privates. I slept among the privates in our position." (Malvinas: Contrahistoria, Héctor Rubén Simeoni, p. 84, Editorial Inédita, 1984) Under the orders of Brigadier-General Mario Benjamin Menéndez, the Argentine military governor at the time, the army engineers (under Colonel Manuel Dorrego) in Port Stanley constructed field showers for the troops that allowed the frontline units before the British landings to send companies into town on a rotating basis to get a hot shower and mend their clothes. (See Malvinas: A Sangre y Fuego, By Nicolás Kasanzew, page 35, Editorial Abril, 1982) Marcelo Alberto Llambías Pravaz, a former platoon commander in the 4th Infantry Regiment in a television interview with Argentina's Channel 23 in December 2011, recalled taking his platoon of conscripts in mid-April 1982 to Port Stanley to allow his men to have a hot shower and shave. On 19 May 1982 a conscript serving with the 12th Infantry Regiment at Goose Green, Secundino Riquelme, reportedly died of starvation. The commanding officer of the 12th Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Italo Angel Piaggi however, maintains in his book about the war that private Riquelme died of a pre-existing heart condition. (Ganso Verde, Italo Angel Piaggi, p. 82, Editorial Sudamericana, 1986)
Second Lieutenant Gustavo Malacalza of the 12th Regiment is accused of having staked three conscripts at Goose Green, for having abandoned their positions to go looking for food and revealing their positions with gunfire. "We said it was going to be us next", said Private Mario Oscar Nuñez recalling the death of conscript Riquelme. Soon after the British landings, he and two other conscripts took the decision to kill a sheep. The three men were skinning the sheep when they were discovered by Second Lieutenant Malacalza, who was accompanied by fellow conscripts of A Company, 12th Regiment and given a beating. "They started kicking and stamping on us. Finally came the staking." (Falklands conscripts recall torture and death at hands of officers." The Times. 18 June 2009) Not all the conscripts of the 12th Regiment experienced field punishments and some even came forward to praise Second Lieutenant Ernesto Orlando Peluffo of the 12th Regiment, who would break and share his loaf of bread with the conscripts. (Diario Momarandu, 25 ANIVERSARIO DE MALVINAS, By Armando Godoy, 02/04/2007) Read More HERE

It sadly wouldn't surprise me if they were tortured, from what I saw of the Argentine conscripts they did not want to be there, some were even told they were just going on an exercise. If these allegations are true then it's not to late to bring these Argentine officers to trial.

Argentina pulls out of Falklands talks

A diplomatic dispute has erupted over the Falkland Islands after the Argentine foreign minister pulled out of talks with William Hague because the UK Government insisted that islanders should be able to take part.Hector Timerman has refused to meet representatives of the Falkland Islands government, which Argentina does not recognise as legitimate. The islanders were expected to tell Mr Timerman that Buenos Aires should respect islanders' rights and leave them in peace. Mr Timerman had initially asked for a one-to-one meeting with Mr Hague. In words bound to raise tensions between the UK and Argentina over the issue Mr Timerman said he was sorry that Mr Hague "can't meet without the supervision of the colonists from the Malvinas". He said that the United Nations regards the dispute over the islands which Argentina knows as the Malvinas as a bilateral issue between Buenos Aires and London.Read More HERE

Oh the arrogance of Hector Timerman, he doesn't think that the population of the Falklands for hundreds of years should be part of any talks, we all know why Hector spat his dummy out because he knows full well that the Islanders will unanimously vote to remain British. So Hector you have pulled out of talks like your military pulled out of fighting in 1982.