Vatican in bid to end Beagle row

Press, 28 December 1978, Page 6

Vatican in bid to end Beagle row

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires A Vatican envoy, Cardinal Antonio Samore, who is trying to prevent war between Argentina and Chile over disputed territory, has held preliminary talks with Argentine leaders and will travel on to Santiago todayCardinal Samore told reporters when he arrived in Buenos Aires that he was neither an arbiter nor a mediator, but someone who had come to offer his good offices in the search for a solution.

Pope John Paul II took the initiative of dinal Samore to South America after both Argentina and Chile stepped up military manoeuvres near three disputed islands in the Beagle Channel at the tip of the continent near Cape Horn.

The two countries had agreed to accept the Vatican as mediator in their centuryold dispute, but could not agree on what scope the mediation should have. Cardinal Samore had his first meeting with President Jorge Videla and the Argentine Foreign Minister (Mr Carlos Pastor) yesterday. No details of the talks were revealed.

The Cardinal told reporters earlier he did not know how long his peace mission 'would last.

“First, I want to listen, to hear, understand, then I believe we will have a dialogue,” he said. “I have no programme.” Cardinal Samore’s statement that he was not a mediator was seen in Buenos Aires as a diplomatic concession to Argentina, which considers his mission only as a means of reducing tension and reconciling differences between the two counI tries.

In Santiago, the Chilean Foreign Minister (Mr Hernan Cubillos) said ' Chile welcomed the Cardinal’s visit, which it saw as the beginning of a mediation attempt which Chile had always accepted. He said Cardinal Samore’s visit had helped ease tension, but added that Chile felt bitter about the detention of Chilean citizens in southern Argentina. The dispute reached crisis proportions last month after the failure of six months of bilateral talks to reach agreement on territorial waters surrounding the three islands.

An international tribunal awarded the islands to Chile last year, but Argentina rejected the finding on the ground that it was based on geographical and historical errors.