UN / FALKLANDS (MALVINAS)

STORY: UN / FALKLANDS (MALVINAS)
TRT: 1.48
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / NATS

DATELINE: 18 JUNE 2009, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:


RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters

18 JUNE 2008, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, meeting of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples
3. Wide shot, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana greeting delegates
4. Wide shot, Taiana taking his seat
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jorge Taiana, Foreign Minister of Argentina:
“The recovery of full sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgias and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas is State policy and responds to a collective yearning, permanent and un-relinquishable, of the people of the Argentine nation. Nonetheless, we have expressed our will, on each occasion, to honor the obligation to resume with the United Kingdom the negotiations on sovereignty. This obligation applies to both parties.”
4. Cutaway, Fiji delegate
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Janet Robertson, Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falklands Islands:
“Whilst it would seem, on the face of it, that peaceful negotiation to resolve a dispute is a noble and eminently reasonable course of action, the attempt by both Argentina and the terms of this resolution to force one party to the table to negotiate away the rights and freedoms of the people of a nation, without reference to the democratic wishes of those same people, is quite simply unacceptable and unjust in the 21st century.”
6. Various shots, photo-op Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon


STORYLINE:

Argentina’s foreign minister Jorge Taiana told a UN committee on decolonization today (18 June) that full Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands (Malvinas) and surrounding maritime areas responded to “a collective yearning, permanent and un-relinquishable, of the people of the Argentine nation”.

The UN’s Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was considering a draft resolution on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

The draft resolution, which was later approved without a vote, recommends that the General Assembly reiterate that the way to end the special and particular colonial situation of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) is through a peaceful negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute between the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Foreign Minister Taiana told delegates that Argentina was ready to resume negotiations with the United Kingdom, and called for the UK to abide by previous UN resolutions requesting the two countries to resume talks over the islands’ sovereignty.

Janet Robertson, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falklands Islands who was present at the meeting as a petitioner, accused Argentina of an aggressive stance and listed several concerns about the draft resolution.

She said that while peaceful negotiation to resolve a dispute would seem a “noble and eminently reasonable course of action”, the terms of the resolution would “force one party to the table to negotiate away the rights and freedoms of the people of a nation” without regard for the “democratic wishes” of those people. She said this was “quite simply unacceptable and unjust in the 21st century”.

The Falklands (Malvinas) is a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, but Argentina has claimed sovereignty ever since the British takeover of the archipelago in 1833. The two-month long Falklands War in 1982 between Argentina and the UK over sovereignty of the Falklands (Malvinas) killed hundreds of people on both sides.