BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Someone has vandalized Argentina’s war cemetery in the Falkland Islands, repeatedly smashing and shattering the glass that protects the country’s sacred Virgin.
Police are seeking suspects, and the islands’ government condemned the crime on Tuesday.
“Clearly we condemn any action of this sort and very much regret that this might have happened.
Anyone who knows anything about the cause of the damage should contact the police,” Dick Sawle, a member of the islands’ legislative assembly, said in a statement.
Families of the Argentine war dead blamed British hostility for what they called an “act of sacrilege” and sent letters to Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and Britain’s ambassador in Buenos Aires, John Freeman, demanding an urgent and exhaustive investigation.
“We believe that reflects escalating hostility by certain British sectors who are influential locally,” their commission said in a statement. “We will not let up until this repugnant act of sacrilege is clarified.”
The Argentine government also condemned the vandalism, demanding that the British government mount an impartial investigation that identifies and punishes those responsible.
The statement made mention of the Falkland Islands Government, which Argentina doesn’t recognize, and blamed Britain for provoking the “barbaric act” with its “hostile attitudes.”