ARGENTINA: Malvinas/Falklands War Continues to Claim Victims

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 2 2002 (IPS) - Some 270 Argentine veterans of the Malvinas/Falklands war committed suicide in the 20 years since the conflict, and most of the survivors of the battle against British troops today are unemployed and lack adequate housing.

The motives behind the suicides vary greatly and many were unrelated to the war. But the decline in suicides to two per year since the 1997 launch of a psychological assistance programme for former combatants indicates some connection between these deaths and participation in the conflict.

There is little comfort for most of the 10,000 Argentine troops who survived that war in the South Atlantic, which began on Apr 2, 1982, lasting until Argentina’s surrender more than two months later.

Seventy-five percent of the veterans lack employment and 60 percent have housing problems, according to the Federation of Former Malvinas Combatants, which represents more than 100 associations throughout the country.

Malvinas veterans often can be seen on Buenos Aires metropolitan trains asking for money, and the passengers generally ignore them. Alfredo Avalos, one such veteran, has five children, is unemployed and receives a war pension of 130 dollars a month.

The survivors today are around 40 years old. The vast majority did not fight in the Malvinas (the Spanish name of the archipelago) because they embraced the military cause, but because military service was obligatory at the time. All young men had to go through two or three years of combat training.

Oscar Poltronieri is considered Argentina’s greatest living hero, and received numerous honours for his courage in battle. Like Avalos, he has five children. Poltronieri worked 17 years for a dairy company, but has been unemployed for the last three. He survives on the pension he receives for his brief time at war.

The statistics resurfaced Tuesday in various ceremonies commemorating the 20th anniversary of Argentina’s failed military invasion of the Malvinas/Falklands, which were occupied by Britain in 1833. Since then, Argentina unsuccessfully has claimed sovereignty over the group of islands.

President Eduardo Duhalde took part in the main event, in the extreme southern city of Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego, the Argentine province closest to the islands. More than 2,000 veterans participated in a march, wearing their uniforms and waving flags. Other former combatant gathered in Buenos Aires by the monument to their fallen comrades.

“We are going to get the islands back. Not with war, but with faith, with patience, with perseverance, with solidarity and with the support of all our sister nations,” Duhalde told the crowd gathered in Ushuaia.

The president urged the Argentine people to look upon the former soldiers as an example of the effort that must be made to find a way out of the country’s current economic crisis.

The day after the massive military disembarkation on the islands Apr 2, 1982, ordered by then-dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, Britain’s prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, dispatched the British navy fleet to the South Atlantic.

The United Nations Security Council also demanded Argentina’s immediate withdrawal from the islands.

Some 650 Argentines died during the little more than two months of the war. The post-war led to other fatalities. According to the Federation of veterans groups, 270 former combatants have committed suicide in the two decades since.

In the first few years, there were several dozen suicides annually, but the rate has been reduced to just two a year. The veterans themselves say the decline is related to the psychological assistance programme launched in 1997 with the input of Bruce Webster, U.S. veteran of the Korean War.

The numbers of Argentine combat deaths and suicides are similar to those of the enemy camp, as the British soldiers were fighting far from home and suffered a similar indifference from the public. More than 250 British combatants have committed suicide since the war ended, according to the South Atlantic Medal Association.

The psychological assistance plan in Argentina, under Webster’s direction, concentrated on training experts in treating post- traumatic stress syndrome, common among soldiers following a war. Among other symptoms, the victims suffer states of “hyper- alertness”, periods of melancholy or of deep depression.

According to a survey, the great majority of those who took part in the programme in 1997 and 1998 in Buenos Aires province said they had never before received professional attention for their problems, which were manifest in nightmares, depression and addiction to alcohol, drugs or work.

The leading cause for this silent tragedy can be found in society’s indifference following that failed military incursion that was ordered by an illegitimate government, said the president of the Federation of Former Combatants, Héctor Beiroa, on Tuesday.

“Because it was a decision taken by a dictatorship, the perspective was lost that it was an honourable and noble cause. For many years, those in power carried out a policy to ‘de- Malvinise’ Argentine society, which meant turning their backs on the veterans,” said Beiroa.

The veterans organised several events to mark the anniversary, including a concert at Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires, and a recital of Argentine music at a polo stadium, in efforts to win “moral recognition” of their participation in the war, even if late, said the Federation president.

But before the celebrations, on the eve of the anniversary a large group of veterans went to the home of former dictator Galtieri and laid out hundreds of wooden crosses, bearing the names of the men lost in a war that, for many Argentines, has not yet ended.