Conscripts Return For 'Closure'

Penguin News, June 2004

Two Argentine veterans of the Falklands war say they have achieved "closure" from a return visit to the Islands.

Jorge Altieri and Jose Rosskio were both nineteen years old when they fought with the 7th Mechanized Regiment in the 1982 battle on Mount Longdon.  Mr Altieri was wounded in the battle, losing his left eye.  He is also paralysed down one side of his body.  

The two men left the Islands on Saturday, June 19, after a one week visit.  Mr Rosskio said he and his friend, who were both conscripts during the war, were simply, ".... ex soldiers who came here to pay our respects to the people who died on Mount Longdon."  He added, "I came back because I needed closure in my life and I'm also doing it for my friends who died here."

The two men lost thirty-six of their comrades in the battle.  To commemorate this, they carried a plaque which lists the names of the thirty-six men on to Mount Longdon.  Mr Rosskio said, "We didn't want to cause any problems," so, after visiting the mountain, they chose to place the plaque in the cemetery at Darwin.

Asked how they had been received in the Islands, Mr Rosskio said that besides an incident in a Stanley bar, ".... we haven't had any problems from anybody."  However he added, ".... we haven't felt very welcome either."

Mr Altieri said that as a conscript travelling to the Islands in April 1982 he felt proud.  He said, "Please don't take this the wrong way.  In our opinion we always thought that the Islands, because they are so close to Argentina, belong to Argentina.  That is why, when we came here (in 1982) and got the Islands back, we were very proud to get something that belonged to us.  But this was without knowing the aftermath that comes from war.  I was hurt on Mount Longdon.  I have paralysis on my right side and I lost my left eye.  It has to be done in a diplomatic or political way; to decide who the Islands belong to without fighting, without having another war."

Mr Rosskio said, "When we came here aged nineteen years old, we were convinced we were fighting for something that was ours.  Through the days, when you think about hunger and cold and other things, you realise you're being used by politicians. Now that I'm 41 I say that war is not the (correct) way of doing things."  However he added that he still believes the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina: "I also realise at the age of 41 that the war doesn't take you anywhere and we have to find a way to live in peace - both English and Argentine."

The pair say the return to the Falklands helped them to find closure in their lives.  Mr Rosskio said, "I had to have closure in my life in a way that is difficult to explain, and to pay homage to my friends.  I feel peace now that I am here for the second time.  I didn't want to die without coming here again."

Mr Altieri said he felt the same way: "It was very hard for me to have closure because of my disability.  It was difficult to go up the mountain.  But I did it because of my friends who fell there, thinking about their families and also thinking about the families of the British guys who died there.  Because while they were killing us and we were killing them, their families and ours were hurting in their countries.  This is the way to have closure, pay homage to both sides - British and Argentine."  He added, "It was very difficult to go back to the mountain, to find our bunkers and remember all the time we were there, wet, with no change of clothes and with very little food."

Mr Rosskio said that during their visit he and his friend met someone who served with the British Forces in 1982: "We became friends with someone who attacked us back then.  We had dinner with one of the guys and we were made very welcome."

Mr Altieri added, "We didn't come here to wave any flags or anything.  We want to have the door open to come back when we can, as we leave our doors open (to people here) to visit us in Buenos Aires." 

Published in Penguin News on 25 June 2004 and reprinted with the kind permission of the Editor.

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