Argentina grants funds for Phase 3 of identification of combatants fallen in Falklands

Argentina grants funds for Phase 3 of identification of combatants fallen in Falklands

Argentina has announced it will finance 130 million Pesos (some US$ 250,000 at the current free market exchange rate) for Project EAAF 2023 which refers to Phase 3 of the Humanitarian Project for the identification of fallen combatants buried in the Falkland Islands.

 To that effect the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights signed this week an agreement with the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology for the above amount which will also include the purchase of state of the art equipment and technology for the search of forcibly disappeared Argentines during military regimes.

In a brief official release officials point out that the “Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology has been crucial for exposing the injustices and violations of human rights both in Argentina and in the whole of the world, In helping to identify Malvinas heroes fallen during the war and the many disappeared during the last military dictatorship, it has enabled to shed light on what happened and collect evidence for the trials of crimes against humanity”.

However “despite the necessary diplomatic agreement with the UK and the Red Cross for the third phase of the Humanitarian Project, as well as a trip to the Falklands for the relatives of those combatants identified in the Second Phase of the project, announced by president Alberto Fernandez in 2022, and to take place last December, which was postponed,” Argentina has complained about the situation.

The identification of combatants buried at the Argentine military cemetery at Darwin was done mainly in 2017 when 115 of the 122 exhumed were identified and in 2021 when the remains of another four were also identified in shared graves.

Finally 119 remains were identified among the 122 burials, but as Argentine veteran and promoter of the foundation “Don’t forget me”. Julio Aro, “there are at least three remains unidentified at the cemetery in Malvinas”.