ARGENTINA sparked outrage last night after running a TV advert showing an Argie Olympian doing step-ups on a British war memorial to our fallen heroes in the Falklands.
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In the film Zylberberg is shown working out at Port Stanley’s Globe Tavern. He runs past the office of Falklands newspaper Penguin News and a red telephone box. And to rub salt in the wound, he does step-ups on the islands’ Great War Memorial honouring British sailors who died battling the German fleet in 1914. The 90-second ad ends with the slogan: “To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil.”
It was screened on Argentine TV stations on Wednesday night — the 30th anniversary of the sinking of Argie warship General Belgrano during the Falklands conflict. Today is the anniversary of the devastating Argentine Exocet missile attack on HMS Sheffield.
The ad, filmed WITHOUT permission of island authorities, triggered outrage in Britain last night.
Falklands War survivor Simon Weston, who paid his respects at the memorial during a visit in March, called the film “an insult”.
Derek Cole, head of the Falklands Veterans Foundation, said: “It is disgraceful. The athlete is on a war memorial. They are dancing on our servicemen’s graves.”
MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Falkland Islands Parliamentary Group, said: “It’s offensive to islanders and to those who lost their lives. We should make a complaint to the Olympic authorities and Kirchner. But she isn’t the sort of person who will listen.”
The ad even drew condemnation from the Foreign Office. A spokesman said: “The Olympics are about sport, not politics. We are dismayed at the insensitivity and disrespect demonstrated by the film makers in their use of a war memorial as a prop.”
Ian Hansen, of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, said: “We will not be bullied by the Argentine government with pieces of cheap propaganda like this.”
Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which they call the Malvinas. But the ad may backfire on Kirchner as many Argentines were critical of it. One told newspaper La Nacion: “It is a disgrace.”
from The Sun
