British missiles down Argentine fighter-bombers

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 6

British missiles down Argentine fighter-bombers

NZPA-Reuter London British forces around the Falkland Islands have shot down two Argentine fighterbombers. in what authoritative sources said was the first use in combat of Britain’s new Seawolf ship-to-air missiles.

The Defence Ministry spokesman said that three American-built Skyhawks had attacked yesterday, an unidentified British warship. Only one of the Argentine planes escaped, he said, while the British ship suffered no damage or casualties.

Argentina confirmed the loss of two of its planes, and said that Argentine forces had downed a British helicopter in the same action. A military high command communique said that the Argentine planes had attacked and caused “considerable damage" to two British frigates which had been shelling the islands’ capital, Puerto Argentine (Port Stanley).

The British Defence Ministry said that a Sea King helicopter had ditched into the sea, but that there was no evidence that the incident was connected with Argentine action. It said the fourman crew had been rescued. In New York the United Nations Secretary-General (Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar) said that he was hopeful of “some really positive results” by the end of the week from his peace talks with British and Argentine envoys. Asked whether there was any danger of a breakdown in the negotiations, Mr Perez de Cuellar replied: “I don’t think so — at least not so far. So far there is no risk of that.”

The Argentine Foreign Minister (Dr Nicanor Costa Mendez) was also hopeful. "Negotiations have not broken down. They are not deadlocked. They are advancing slowly," he told a news conference. He declined to give further details, say-

ing that Mr Perez de Cuellar had recommended the talks should remain confidential. The British press yesterday gave prominence to moves on the diplomatic front. The Foreign Secretary (Mr Francis Pym) reported some “promise of progress” in new Argentine proposals for a peaceful solution of the conflict.

Fears among British rightwingers that the Government is preparing a “sell-out" on the Falklands were reflected in a spate of editorials yesterday in Britain’s conservative newspapers.

There were also reports that the Right wing of Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party was preparing to fight any settlement judged too favourable to Argentina. Right-wing newspapers predicted disaster for the Government if it backed down on the Falklands.

The “Daily Telegraph” said: “The suggestion that men fought for a plan which decorously conferred on Argentina the things she usurped by force would be insupportable.

“The idea that men went to the bottom of the ocean so that diplomats could go peacefully to their beds would provoke fury. If the Government were not to fulfil its duty on this matter, it would not deserve further support, and it would not get, it.”

The “Daily Express” said: “If a situation is negotiated which leaves Argentina in possession of some, or all, of the spoils of its aggression, then the public’s present high regard for the Prime Minis-: ter (Mrs Thatcher) and her Government will change at once into disillusioned and angry contempt.” The latest opinion poll, published yesterday in the “Daily Telegraph,” said that 71 per cent approved of the Government’s actions over the Falklands.

Leaders of the Opposition Labour Party have thrown

their weight behind the Government’s attempt to negotiate a settlement through the United Nations, and called on party members to support the Government’s “doves” or moderates. Political sources said that Mr Pym and the Home Secretary (Mr William Whitelaw) were seen as the "doves” in the small inner Cabinet handling the Falklands crisis.

The Defence Ministry said that the 189 prisoners who surrendered when British forces recaptured South Georgia last month had been handed over today to the International Red Cross, on Ascension Island.

A Ministry spokesman said that the prisoners, who included 150 Argentine servicemen, had left Ascension for the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo aboard a chartered DCIO.

The Argetines were to be handed over to the Argentine authorities immediately upon their arrival at Montevideo.

The Ministry said that an Argentine sailor had been shot dead after British troops recaptured South Georgia. An inquiry into the sailor’s death on April 26 had been completed and its findings would be announced in the next few days.

The dead sailor was named as Chief Petty Officer F. Artuso, and said he was shot when the captured submaririe Santa Fe. damaged and captured the day before, was being moved from a jetty in Grytviken harbour. It gave no further details of the shooting. In Lima, Peru, tens of thousands of- Peruvians marched through the Capital, burning British flags and chanting “English pirates” in a show of support for Argentina.

Witnesses estimate that up to 100,000 people took part in the five-hour demonstration, believed to be the biggest public demonstration in Peru in two decades. No incidents were reported.