Red Cross To Begin Identifying Remains Of Argentine Soldiers In Falklands

A team of forensic experts from the Red Cross will begin this month the process of identifying the remains of 123 Argentine soldiers, who are buried in anonymous graves on the Falklands Islands.

Britain and Argentina reached a deal last year to identify the fallen soldiers. 

DNA samples will be taken from the unmarked graves in Darwin Cemetery and compared with samples provided by relatives of the missing soldiers.

Laurent Corbaz, who heads the project for the Red Cross, said the team will do its best to identify as many soldiers as possible:

"I hope we will succeed in matching some of the graves. The plaque on the graves should not remain 'Argentina soldier known only by God'".

The team will have help from a British army veteran who, at the end of the war, was ordered to recover and bury the Argentine dead. 

For two months Britain fought to reclaim the Falklands Islands after Argentina invaded in 1982.

In total, 255 British soldiers and about 650 Argentine soldiers died, many of them conscripts.

Argentina still lays claim to the islands that it calls the Malvinas.

The process to identify the bodies will begin on June 19.