UNITED
NATIONS, March
26, updated --
There were
dueling press
conferences on
the
Malvinas or
Falkland
Islands at the
UN on Tuesday.
Argentina's
Foreign
Minister
Héctor Marcos
Timerman told
Inner City
Press that
the US State
Department's
William Burns
wants a
peaceful
settlement;
the UN's
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon offers
his good
offices.
Minutes
later,
UK Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant said
there is no
need for Ban's
good offices.
He
recounted that
Timerman
turned down a
meeting with
his UK
counterpart
William Hague
because Hague
insisted
that on this
issue, the
people living
on the island
must
participate.
Timerman
said
that forty
percent of the
residents were
born in the
UK. He
mocked the UK,
and Reuters,
when Louis
Charbonneau of
that wire
service asked
if some of the
residents
hadn't been
there longer
than
the Timerman
family has
been in
Argentina.
Timerman
first
said thanks
for doing your
research into
the Timerman
family,
then asked,
you did your
research,
right? As a
journalist?
Timerman
directed
several
question back
at Reuters,
none of which
were
answered.
This
was capped off
minutes later
when Lyall
Grant
approvingly
quoted the
Reuters
question,
about some
Falkland
residents
being there
longer
than most
Argentinians
have been in
Argentina.
That
said, Lyall
Grant
responded to
many of the
points made by
Timerman
and the three
other Latin
ministers,
Bruno
Rodríguez
Parrilla,
Minister for
Foreign
Affairs of
Cuba, on
behalf of
CELAC, Luis
Almagro,
Minister for
Foreign
Affairs of
Uruguay, of
behalf of
MERCOSUR and
Jose Beraún,
Deputy
Minister for
Foreign
Affairs of
Peru, on
behalf of
UNASUR.
(A wag
said you could
almost feel
Hugo
Chavez in the
room, with
these
acronyms.)
Lyall
Grant
distinguished
Gibraltar,
when Inner
City Press
asked about
Timerman
quoting Jack
Straw about
that Rock; he
said Argentina
never
made a claim
of sovereignty
for Sandwich,
for example,
until the
twentieth
century.
Neither
side
took questions
beyond the
islands:
Timerman
turned down
two
questions on
Iran, Inner
City Press
held off from
asking Lyall
Grant
about the
delayed Darfur
Presidential
Statement,
much less the
Syria
chemical
weapons probe.
They say no
man is an
island, but in
this
case the two
press
conferences
were.
Footnote:
Reuters'
Charbonneau
tried to get
the first
question, but
it was
asked by
another who
was handed the
microphone
first. He took
the
second
question, and
offered thanks
on behalf of
UNCA, now
known as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance
or now UN
Cowardice
Association,
since
its “leaders”
operate
anonymously,
in comments
and through fake
social media
accounts.
Most
recently,
after
ghoulishly
taking
photographs of
the UN's
non-consensual
raid of Inner
City Press'
office on
March 18, UNCA
president
Pamela Falk
refuses to say
why she took
the photos,
only
issues
legal threats
to Inner City
Press for
raising the
question.
So
Inner City
Press thanked
Timerman for
the Free
UN Coalition
for
Access, in
Spanish. Then
when Lyall
Grant spoke,
thanked by
FUNCA,
UNCA pulled
back. Was it
the striking
similarity on
questions, on
the
relative stay
of Brits and
Argentines?
Watch this
site.
Update:
here's from
UK Mission
transcript:
Inn
Inner City
Press: I
wanted to ask
you about
Sandwich and
Georgia. I’m
sure you heard
what he said.
He seemed to
be saying that
these are
depopulated or
unpopulated
and that this
proves... the
colonial...
the overall
argument is
that they view
it as
sovereignty
and
territorial
integrity and
you’re trying
to say it’s
self
determination.
Is there some
difference
with Sandwich
or Georgia
islands and
what do you
make, it seems
like it’s a
philosophical
clash on..
rubric... to
view the
conflict under
it? If an
island is
empty, what’s
the
self-determination
issue to it?
A: It’s true
there’s no
settled
population on
South Sandwich
Islands and
South Georgia
as far as I’m
aware and the
history of the
separate
islands is a
little bit
different, but
the
sovereignty of
the United
Kingdom goes
back to
exactly the
same time. The
one difference
you can do is
that Argentina
never claimed
sovereignty
over South
Georgia and
South Sandwich
Islands until
the 20th
Century, so
they were
never focussed
on that at
all, so there
is a
difference in
terms of the
Argentinean
claim, but in
terms of
British
sovereignty,
it covers all
three
territories.
Inner City
Press: What
about him
quoting Jack
Straw, did you
hear that one?
What did you
think of that?
He was quoting
a former
Minister as
somehow saying
that a
referendum was
too expensive
and wouldn’t
change
anything. What
did you think
of his quote?
A: As I
understand it,
that quote is
about the
referendum in
Gibraltar,
which as I
say, a very
different
situation.
, 
