Al Jazeera Documentaries

Veterans - The Falklands - Part 2 (2008x6)

Data di messa in onda: Apr 22, 2008

The Falkands war is a conflict many people in Argentina would like to forget but which most cannot. Although the war lasted just 74 days the effects have lasted many years for the country's veterans. The Falklands is a group of bleak, wind-swept islands that at one time few people had heard of and fewer still could place on a map. But this anonymity was forever shattered in 1982 when the UK went to war with Argentina over the ownership of this tiny territory. Lying in the Southatlantic Ocean, some 500km off the coast of Argentina and almost 13,000km from the UK, it seemed inconceivable that these two nations would unleash their full military might in a battle for control of this little patch of land. A total of 649 Argentinians died in the conflict and those who survived they became synonymous with a humiliating defeat and an unpopular military junta that collapsed soon after. At least 350 veterans have committed suicide in the years since the war. Las Malvinas is Argentina's name for the Falkland islands, controlled by the British since 1833 and home to 3,000 of its citizens. In Argentina, the term Falklands is never used. Malvinas on the other hand has an almost sacred resonance. Every town has its Malvinas monuments - as much a reminder of whom they believe the islands belong to as a memorial to the fallen. Al Jazeera visited survivors for whom the Malvinas are still an inalienable part of Argentina