ICRC - News Release No. 17/39
03 June 2017

Geneva, Switzerland (ICRC) – Final preparations are underway ahead of work to identify the mortal remains of the unidentified Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin cemetery. Laurent Corbaz, head of the project for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has now arrived on the islands. The rest of the team is expected to join him in the coming weeks.

The Humanitarian Project Plan was signed on 20 December 2016 by Argentina’s deputy foreign minister, Pedro Villagra Delgado; the minister of state for Europe and the Americas at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Sir Alan Duncan; and the president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer.

The plan follows a request made by the government of Argentina to the ICRC in 2012, to facilitate the identification of the mortal remains of the unidentified Argentine soldiers buried in the cemetery.

An experienced team of ICRC forensics experts will work on the project. Exhumation work is expected to begin as soon as 19 June, if conditions allow.

For additional information on the Project, please refer to an interview with Laurent Corbaz, head of the Humanitarian Project Plan. 

The designations employed in this statement do not imply official endorsement, nor the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the ICRC concerning the legal status of any territory, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Whenever a disputed territory is given different names by the parties concerned, the ICRC uses those names together, in French alphabetical order.