Malvinas islanders travel to NY to address CFK

A group of young Malvinas Islanders has travelled to New York City in order to pass a firm message to Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during the United Nations summit that they want to remain British subjects and continue their current way of life.

The small delegation of Islanders, most of whom were not yet born when the war took place in 1982, will attend a special conference session at the Committee on Decolonization.

They told reporters that Argentina's dismissive attitude to Islanders is an insult to the generations of families who have forged a life there.

The Argentine President is planning to attend the meeting of the UN's Committee of 24 on June 14, which is Liberation Day and the 30th anniversary of the end of the Malvinas war.

James Marsh, 31, a delegate who works for the Islands government, told reporters: “We are sixth and seventh generation Islanders, our families forged a life in the Islands when times were much less easy than they are now. It is an insult to those people that their endeavours, the 150 years we have been in the Falklands [Malvinas], are not recognized by the Argentine politicians.”

Likewise, Marsh added: “I think the most important thing we can tell them [Argentines] is we are a vibrant, young, self-sufficient community who just want to be left in peace to forge our own future.”

Ailie Biggs, 29, manager of Kelper Stores in Puerto Argentino said: “It is not often we are asked, a lot of the time it is discussions between Argentina and the UK. This is one opportunity, we really feel, where as Falkland Islanders we can say what we feel and we are the important ones in the equation, we are the ones who live there.”