UK condemns Falklands protesters

The Government has condemned violent protesters who attacked the British Embassy in Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.

Several hundred demonstrators pelted police officers with homemade fire-bombs and threw rocks and flaming bottles towards the embassy as a series of events were held in both Argentina and the UK on Monday to commemorate the 1982 conflict.

Television footage showed riot police using a water cannon to disperse the group of extremists who had earlier set fire to a Union Jack flag and an effigy of the Duke of Cambridge in protest against the British rule of the islands.

The violence came after Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner stoked the diplomatic battle between Buenos Aires and London by describing the UK's control over the Falkland Islands as unjust.
However, David Cameron said he remained committed to upholding British sovereignty over the territory and insisted that the islanders must be allowed to choose their nationality status.

Argentina's complaints - including to the United Nations - of "militarisation" by the UK will be heightened by the deployment on Wednesday of the Navy's most advanced warship for its maiden operation.

Destroyer HMS Dauntless will set sail from Portsmouth for the Falklands in what the The Ministry of Defence says is a "pre-planned and routine" six-month deployment in the South Atlantic. It comes after Argentinian hackles were raised by the "provocative" six-week deployment of Prince William to the islands as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot.

The Foreign Office condemned "the violent actions of a minority" following Monday's demonstration. It said in a statement: "All states are obliged under the Vienna Convention to provide appropriate protection for foreign diplomatic missions.

"We expect the Argentine Government to continue to fulfil its obligations under the convention and continue fully to enforce the law against any demonstrators committing criminal acts."
A total of 255 UK serviceman were killed in retaking the remote South Atlantic islands, while 649 Argentinians lost their lives in the conflict.