UNITED
NATIONS, June
20 -- UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant held a
press
stakeout on
June 20 to
assert again
that since
people living
in the
Malvinas /
Falkland
Islands don't
want to be
part of
Argentina,
they
shouldn't have
to.
Inner
City Press
asked Lyall
Grant to
contrast that
position with
the UK's
on Somaliland.
There, despite
an expressed
desire to be
independent,
the UK (and
notably the
former British
Ambassador to
Sudan, now UN
envoy to
Somalia
Nicholas Kay)
in essence
tell
Somaliland it
should be part
of Somalia.
After
saying "I
don't want to
make
comparisons,"
Lyall Grant
replied that
"the main fact
is this is not
a question of
territorial
integrity, the
Falkland
Islands have
never, ever in
their
history been
part of
Argentina." Video
here from
Minute 2:38.
So,
one wonders,
it is
Somaliland's
briefing time
with Somalia
that makes
its position
different?
Lyall
Grant
continued,
"there is no
question of
restoring some
sort
territorial
integrity,
that never
existed. The
UK had
sovereignty
before
Argentina even
existed."
Is
the new Somali
state a
successor to
the pre-1991
Somalia? What
of the
time before
1960?
Lyall
Grant
concluded of
the Falkland
Islands,
"Spain never
contested
that at the
time." So the
current rights
of a people
turn on
other having
contested, or
not contested,
long ago in
the past?
We'll have
more on this.
Footnote:
Inner
City Press
followed up on
at the June 20
noon briefing
on a
question it
asked Lyall
Grant on June
19, and wrote
about on June
19:
the presence
in the UN
compound in
Mogadishu of
employees of
the
South Africa
state owned
arms
manufacturer
Denel, three
of whom were
killed in the
attack on the
compound.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey said the
employees were
in de-mining.
But the
companies
itself
described them
as "facilities
manager" and
"electrician."
How to
explain the UN
insisting they
were doing
something,
demining, that
their employer
does not
mention? Watch
this site.
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