Today, the Secretary for the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, and the Secretary for Justice, Juan Martín Mena, held a press conference on the development of the second phase of the Humanitarian Project Plan (HPP) for the identification of Argentine veterans fallen in the Malvinas War.
Filmus reported the preliminary finding of the remains of at least five people as part of the work being carried out by the forensic team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the identification of the remains of unidentified Argentine veterans buried in grave C.1.10 in the Malvinas Islands Darwin Cemetery.
He further stated that on 26 August, the head of the forensic team, Luis Fondebrider, will take the skeletal tissue samples from the Malvinas Islands to the Forensic Genetics Laboratory of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (LGF-EAAF) in Córdoba city, the results of which are expected for late October.
The Secretary for the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic also stated that the forensic team of the ICRC will travel to Caleta Trullo tomorrow “for the purpose of conducting the search for and identification of a possible temporary war grave that may contain remains of unidentified Argentine soldiers.”
“On behalf of the Argentine Government I would like to thank the Red Cross for their enormous efforts to initiate this second phase of the humanitarian project in grave C.1.10 in Darwin Cemetery,” the Secretary added, finally stressing that “this is a true State policy that began in 2012 under Cristina Fernández’s administration.”
Mena in turn stated that “this is one the most moving humanitarian projects in recent years regarding the identification of Argentine soldiers that had not been identified in Darwin Cemetery.”
The Second Humanitarian Project Plan was signed on 18 March 2021, when the Governments of the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland agreed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) carrying out the identification of the remains of unidentified Argentine veterans buried in grave C.1.10.
In July, the Argentine Ambassador to the International Organizations in Geneva, Federico Villegas, his British counterpart Simon Manley, and the Vice-president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Giles Carbonier, signed the necessary international agreements to advance the search for and identification of a possible temporary war grave in Caleta Trullo.
In the same humanitarian spirit of the first phase, which began in 2012 with the first Humanitarian Project Plan, these agreements are intended to identify the remains of Argentine soldiers who fought to restore exercise of Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas and who lost their lives on the islands, as well as to provide answers to their families with regard to the location to pay homage to their loved ones.
