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Today's Top News
Diego Garcia: Chagos Islands Return 'Puts US Base at Risk'
Islanders seeking to return to the homes from which they were removed to make way for a US military base nearly 40 years ago have no right to return, the law lords were told yesterday. Allowing the Chagossian islanders to go back to their Indian Ocean homes would be a "precarious and costly" operation, and the United States had said that it would also present an "unacceptable risk" to its base on Diego Garcia, the law lords heard.
The Foreign Office is appealing this week to the House of Lords against earlier judgments which have granted the Chagossians the right to return to the islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory. A group of islanders have arrived from Mauritius, where most of them have lived since being evicted, to hear the final chapter in their legal battle. Both the divisional court and the court of appeal have already found in favour of the Chagossians.
While there were "undeniably unattractive aspects" to what had happened to the islanders in the 1970s, that was no longer what the case was about, Jonathan Crow QC, for the foreign secretary, told lords Bingham, Hoffmann, Rodger, Carswell and Mance.
The issue now was whether the government had been entitled in 2004 to issue orders in council forbidding the return of the islanders, he said. Britain took the Chagos islands from France in the Napoleonic wars and, under a 1971 immigration ordinance, removed the inhabitants compulsorily so that the main island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, could be used as a US base.
Crow said that it had been regarded by the US since 9/11 as a "defence facility of the highest importance ... a linchpin for the UK's allies".
Although the judgments being contested do not grant the islanders the right to return to Diego Garcia itself, repopulation of the other islands would present an "unacceptable risk", the US believed.
"It has financial implications, political implications and defence implications," said Crow. "The Chagossians do not own any territory ... They have no property rights on the islands at all. What is being asserted is a right of mass trespass."
Most of the islanders were now British citizens, said Crow. They had already received "very substantial compensation" for their removal, the law lords heard.
Sir Sydney Kentridge QC will reply on behalf of the Chagossians. They argue that they should be given the right to return, whether all of them wish to do so or not, and claim that it would be possible for them to make a living through ecotourism and fishing.
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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9 Comments so far
Show Allis the british foreign office misleading us again? they were primarily responsible for expelling the islanders through deceipt. Now they tell the court that the islanders are british citizens - but in reality they cannot migrate to britain. also, as per john pilgers heart rending book - freedom, next time - the compensation they received was miserly. regardles, if the islanders wish to return to chagos, that is their right, not a priviledge granted by britain. perhaps mugabe should occupy whitehall and offer the denizens rights to live in zimbabwe.
Hopefully we'll be sent packing.
"Law lords" what an obscene term.
Yeah, these people would really be a threat to a military base. I can understand the concern. Christ!
I hope John Pilger knows about this.
The article points out "Both the divisional court and the court of appeal have already found in favour of the Chagossians." Don't mistake what Jonathon Crow QC asserts, paid mouthpiece, for the truth.
What the article does not point out is that the appeal court only allowed this new appeal if the FO paid the Chagossians legal costs (win or lose) -- which to my mind was highly unusual, and goes to show that the lower court knew what the FO was about, ie never being wrong, saying sorry, or being called to account.
The only problem will be that if the Chagossians win again (no more appeals) there will be some new retrospective legislation introduced the next day. It's probably drafted already.
(And I hate to think what the island now looks like.)_
What a sad commentary on We The People that only a handful of posts appear, instead of the much needed outcry of just one more feather in the cap of the good 'ol USofA's crimes against humanity. But, try asking your friends if they know what or where Diego Garcia is and see what quizzical looks you get in return.
Teach children our truth about our history, not just the nice stuff. Enough ranting, sorry.
You can get another perspective/point of view on the removal of the Islanders here:
Stealing a Nation
http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/stealing_a_nation.php
The whole story - http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=diego_garcia
Those islands will be under 50 plus feet of ocean water within twenty years. How high is the control tower on the Air Force base?
BTW, if you ever wish to visit Disney World, plan to so so within fifteen to twenty years, it's going under too.
1
I beg to disagree with the first poster. The islanders are full British citizens and have the legal right to live, work and own property in the UK. In fact, about a thousand Chagossians have migrated to England and nearly all of them are living in and near Crawley, near Gatwick Airport.
There are some problems, however. These are poor people, not jetsetters, and it is difficult to save enough money in Mauritius to pay plane fare to London. When they do, they are denied some benefits until they've resided there for three months, just when they most need help in getting re-established.
The younger ones do not have British citizenship because they were born in Mauritius or the Seychelles. So we forcibly and illegally exiled them, and then are able to penalise their children for not being born in the Chagos Islands. You can see why they may not admire us for the integrity of our leaders.
Some Chagossians feel their future is in the UK, which is certainly the land of opportunity compared to the slums of Fort Louis, Mauritius. Others want to return to the northern atolls of the Chagos Islands, and some wish to return to Diego Garcia, which is a very large atoll. The problem for the latter is not space, but security concerns, and this may be a problem for the Diego Garcians for some time to come.
In all cases, the people of the Chagos Islands are entitled to just compensation for what we have put them through. Justice requires that those who wish to resettle elsewhere be assisted in doing so, especially in educating their children so that generations of Chagossians will not be trapped forever in poverty.
For those who wish to resettle in Peros Banhos or Salomon Atolls, they are British subjects and are entitled to decent education, health care, social services and the same opportunities and benefits that are afforded to others in the UK Overseas Territories.
I am confident that the Law Lords will see this as I do, and finally bring justice to these people. No, this will not be an endless round of oppressive legislation and appeals to the courts. This year will see the end of it. As Chagossian leader Olivier Bancoult has said, "The world is changing. We will win."
May justice prevail.