FALKLANDS CALAMARI
The new ambassador from Argentina, who arrived in Washington last week, has been using diplomacy to refight the Falklands War, a conflict over a group of islands off the coast of the South American nation that his country lost to Britain 30 year ago.
Jorge Arguello last year carried Argentina’s relentless claim to the islands to several international forums in his former position as Argentina’s ambassador to the United Nations.
He accused Britain of military occupation of the islands, complained that London violated Argentina’s fishing and oil-drilling rights, and even attacked the famous Falklands calamari.
In September, Mr. Arguello told China’s International Studies Foundation that the 3,000 residents of the Falklands are under military occupation. The Royal Air Force maintains a base with about 1,500 troops on the islands.
A month later, Mr. Arguello was in South Africa, where he complained to students at the University of Cape Town that Britain was stealing Argentine fish and drilling in areas claimed by his government.
He even warned them about squid.
“So now that you know what is behind a Falklands calamari dish, think twice before ordering it,” he said, according to a report from the MercoPress, a South Atlantic news agency.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner last year called Britain a “crude colonial power in decline” and recently gained the support of Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to ban shipping from the Falklands.
Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron sent the Falklands islanders a New Year’s message in which he pledged to “never negotiate” away their sovereignty to Argentina.
“Your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy,” he said.
Argentina, which calls the islands the Malvinas, has claimed the islands since the early 1800s, but about 70 percent of the residents are of British descent and want to remain part of the British Commonwealth.
Under a former military junta, Argentina invaded the Falklands in April 1982. Britain sent troops to the islands and expelled the invaders after a 74-day war.
Before his tour as Argentina’s U.N. ambassador, Mr. Arguello was a member of the Argentine legislature, where he served as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and of the Parliamentary Observatory on the Malvinas Islands.
’IMPORTANT OPENING’
The death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il provides an “important opening” for the United States to press his successor to respect religious freedom, rights advocates told Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also called on Mrs. Clinton to urge China to stop deporting North Korean refugees back to the brutal, Stalinist state.
“The United States should speak publicly and consistently about religious freedom [and] refugee and humanitarian concerns within the context of regional peace and stability …,” said commission Chairman Leonard Leo.
He noted that survivors of North Korea’s “infamous prison camps” have testified at commission hearings about “malnutrition, hard labor, beatings, forced abortions and summary executions.”
Mr. Leo added that the estimates of inmates in North Korean prisons range up to 200,000.
North Korean secret police also have infiltrated clandestine religious services, he said.
“The growth of religion in North Korea continues to be a perceived threat to the legitimacy of the North Korean ruling family, including the chosen successor, Kim Jong-un,” Mr. Leo said.
The commission is an independent panel with members appointed by the White House and Congress.
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• James Morrison can be reached at jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.
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