Malvinas Islands hold controversial referendum
Iran Press TV
Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:48PM GMT
People living in the Malvinas Islands (Falklands) are voting in a referendum on whether or not they want to remain under Britain’s control amid a long-standing dispute between London and Buenos Aires over the sovereignty of the territory.
Some 1,649 islanders out of the population of 2,563 are registered to go to the polls in the two-day referendum, which was started today, to decide whether they want to remain British or rather they want to rejoin Argentina as motherland.
The yes or no question put to voters is, "Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?"
The referendum is supported by the British government, but the Argentinian embassy in London said in a statement that the vote had no legitimacy.
Earlier in January, Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner wrote an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, urging him to abide by a 1960 United Nations (UN) resolution calling on members to “end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations”.
She recently called for the British government to sit down at the negotiating table to settle the sovereignty dispute.
The two countries fought a 74-day-long war in 1982 over the islands, which ended with the British side claiming victory over the Argentineans.
Located about 300 miles off Argentina’s coast and home to about 3,000 inhabitants, the islands have been declared part of the British Overseas Territories since Britain established its colonial rule on the territories in 1833.
SSM/JR/HE
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