Several Injured In Clash Between Argentine Falklands Veterans And Police - Bernama

February 15, 2012 13:08 PM

Several Injured In Clash Between Argentine Falklands Veterans And Police

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 15 (BERNAMA-NNN-MERCOPRESS) - Dozens were injured and arrested downtown here when groups of Argentine Falklands-Malvinas veterans clashed violently with police demanding to be recognised as full veterans.

Incidents started late Mon Feb 13 evening and continued throughout the night until mid morning yesterday when protestors temporarily lifted the demonstration.

However at a roadblock the protest reignited mid day and not long after things turned violent upon the arrival of the Federal Police.

The former soldiers were sent to Santa Cruz province and acted as support forces during the war, but were not actually deployed to the Falkland Islands.

Wearing military uniforms and waving Argentine flags, the men in maroon and green were demanding the Federal government recognise them as war veterans and be granted with same benefits (pensions, medical and psychological aid, among others) as those who were deployed to the Islands.

Police marched along the main 9 de Julio Avenue dressed in riot gear while parading water cannon riot trucks tried to clear the protest.

The former soldiers hit back at the police by throwing stones and other articles back at police causing multiple injuries between the two groups.

Controversy surrounding the issue is high, as Malvinas war veterans are the first ones not to recognise their pairs as veterans by commonly arguing "they did not experience what being at the battle field is like," and saying it would be an insult for them to see those who did not take on the battle field to be granted with same social benefits, local media reported.

Protests are not new, as 'mobilised soldiers' have been camping at Plaza de Mayo -right in front of Government House- for the past four years. In a huge improvised tent the former soldiers have been waiting for President Cristina Fernandez to summon them as well to recognise them as war veterans.

Surprisingly, during last weekend the head of the ruling party's bloc in the Lower House and former Agriculture Minister, Julian Dominguez, visited pro-government TV show 6-7-8 and remembered he was one of the thousands of troops mobilised to Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces to take on duties during the Malvinas war.

Dominguez praised the recent announcement made by President Cristina on the opening of a psychiatric hospital in Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz for war veterans, but then remembered that those "mobilised to the 'South Atlantic Theatre of Operations' are also war veterans that have suffered a lot including from mental disorders. "Let's not forget that more than 400 soldiers committed suicide ever since the war ended", he said.

Dominguez was member of the GA101 unit sent to Santa Cruz as a back up unit for those troops fighting in Port Stanley or Puerto Argentino as the Argentines called the capital during the 74-day occupation.

Similar groups of former soldiers beat up an Argentine lawmaker recently as he was leaving Government House following President Cristina's speech when she announced Argentina would make a formal complaint to the UN because of the British 'militarisation' of the Malvinas dispute and the South Atlantic.

-- BERNAMA-NNN-MERCOPRESS

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