On 8 and 9 December, a meeting was held in Geneva, in the context of the agreement reached by the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 29 November, between delegations of both governments to discuss the terms of the joint mandate to be granted to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in order to determine the identity of unidentified Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin cemetery, in the Malvinas Islands.
This Argentine initiative is aimed at identifying these heroes who fought for our Nation and at bringing peace of mind to their families. The purpose of the initiative is purely humanitarian and seeks to settle an historic debt with the families of soldiers fallen in the South Atlantic conflict who are buried in the Darwin Cemetery as "Argentine soldiers only known by God". Thanks to this initiative, their first and last name will be indicated in their final resting place at the cemetery.
According to the mandate that has in principle been agreed between Argentina and the United Kingdom under the sovereignty safeguard formula, the Red Cross will form a group of forensic experts comprising two Argentine experts, for the purpose of collecting DNA samples from unidentified soldiers which will then be compared to samples collected from families that voluntarily consent to identification.
If both governments agree on the instruments negotiated in Geneva, this humanitarian initiative could be carried out in 2017.
Press release No. 439/16.
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