Let the Chagossians return to their paradise islands

Whatever your appreciation of John Prescott, he is right on the case of Chagos these days:

Last year I wrote about one of the worst cases of forced ­repatriation in British history.

Two thousand people were scared into fleeing their island ­paradise after their dogs were rounded up and gassed to death.

The Chagos Islands were leased to the US for 50 years by the Harold Wilson government as part of a squalid deal on nuclear weapons. The islanders were made to flee because the US wanted to turn one of the islands, Diego Garcia, into an ­American ­military base.

Further reading.

Should the Chagos Islands be resettled?

Summary and conclusion of an academic paper.
In conclusion, after exploring on the different arguments for and against the resettlement of the Chagos islands, the author of this paper strongly believes that the Chagos islands should be resettled. Although the resettlement would be costly and would entail expensive underwriting by the British taxpayer for an open-ended period, in September 2010 the Conservative MEP, Charles Tannock, was told by the European Commissioner for development, that if the UK requested the Commission to explore options whether it would be willing to make a financial contribution towards the cost of resettlement under the Overseas Association 2001/822/EC, it would happily be willing in doing so
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. One supports the arguments which have been put forward by David Snoxell, a former British High Commissioner to Mauritius 2000-2004 and Deputy Commissioner of BIOT 1995-1997, about the resettlement on the outer islands of the Chagos archipelago as well as an agreement on sovereignty of such islands. The British government is currently on a contract with the US with regards to Diego Garcia where the US military base is located, it would be highly preposterous to expect the US to abandon their base or to welcome resettlement there. As Snoxell argues that it is possible for the British government to restore the Chagossians right of return to the outer islands of the Chagos archipelago without prejudice to the security of the US military base
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. Finally, the resettlement of the Chagos islands would be a great opportunity to right a great wrong as well as to wipe a national shame of the British government, the Chagossians should no longer be the victims of an injustice that deprived them of their birth right

The forgotten people of Chagos

More questions surface over the use of Diego Garcia atoll for secret CIA flights to 'black sites'

Diego Garcia, a British overseas territory leased as a military base to the US since 1966, may as well be on the moon for all it means to most Britons. But each month fresh evidence emerges of the key role the Indian Ocean atoll played in extraordinary rendition, the ghosting of terrorist suspects to CIA interrogation black sites around the world.

The toxic question for the government is to what extent it knew the practice was happening. The answer has ramifications not just for the UK's relationship with the US but also the future of its nuclear weapons programme.

For years Foreign Office ministers have stonewalled questions about Diego Garcia, in particular what records they have of flights in and out of the atoll. In 2008, Margaret Beckett, then foreign secretary, said that "the record-keeping was not all that marvellous, frankly. It was very difficult for the government to answer questions."

Further reading

UK Appeal Court hearing - government must address Chagossians' situation without delay, new report - MRG press release

On the eve of a case in the UK's Appeal Court challenging the creation of the Chagos Marine Protected Area, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) calls on the UK government to address the situation facing the Chagossians without delay.

In 2010 the UK government created the world's largest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The Islands' original inhabitants were evicted 50 years ago to make way for a US air base on the island of Diego Garcia.

A new MRG report says that the creation of the Marine Protected Area, and the subsequent banning of commercial fishing in its waters, effectively bars Islanders from returning to their homes. Under international law, the Chagossians have a right to return to their homeland, unless such return is not feasible, in which case they should be offered appropriate compensation.

‘The Court case highlights the pressing need for a new feasibility study to clarify, once and for all, the possible means and arrangements for return to the islands,' says Lucy Claridge, MRG's Head of Law.

‘Given that the 2002 investigation commissioned by the UK government on resettlement of the Chagos Islands was found to be seriously flawed, it is imperative that any new feasibility study must be carried out with the full participation of the Chagossians,' she adds.

The Islanders' struggle to return home has led to a decades-long legal battle in the UK courts, and culminated in a December 2012 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dismissal of their claims to return, citing reasons based on technical grounds.

Over a year has passed since the ECtHR's decision, and the situation confronting the Chagos Islanders remains unresolved.

The report, Still dispossessed - the battle of the Chagos Islanders to return to their homeland, summarises the case as it now stands and reminds the world of the Chagossians' plight. It also discusses some of the potential ways forward for addressing this prolonged violation of human rights.

‘Apart from the right to return, the Chagossians have the right to an effective remedy and reparation for the violations of their rights. No satisfactory explanation has ever been advanced for the unwarranted forced relocation of them from their homeland,' says Lucy Claridge.

‘At the very least the UK government should issue a formal apology for the injustice suffered by the Chagossian people over the past 50 years,' she adds.

MRG has supported the islanders in their long struggle to return home, and was a joint intervener in the case before the ECtHR. The case at the UK Court of Appeal will be held on 31 March 201

- See more at: http://www.minorityrights.org/12326/press-releases/uk-appeal-court-hearing-government-must-address-chagossians-situation-without-delay-new-report.html#sthash.Ghbxh71u.dpuf

Where international law stops

A thesis on Chagos and international law: Chagos - Where international law stops, Utrecht 2012, written by Mihai Martoiu Ticu.

Conférence sur Chagos à Saint-Paul, La Réunion

Mercredi 20 février 2013 à 18h15, à l’Espace Leconte de Lisle à Saint-Paul, le professeur André Oraison donnera une conférence programmée par les « Amis de l’Université », en partenariat avec le « Comité Solidarité Chagos La Réunion » (CSCR). La conférence a pour titre : « Diego Garcia : une importante base militaire américaine au cœur de l’océan Indien ». La conférence sera suivie d’un débat. Elle sera accompagnée de photographies montrant les îles Chagos ainsi que les luttes des Chagossiens. « Il s’agit donc d’un thème d’une actualité brûlante, précise le CSCR dans un communiqué, et directement lié à la lutte menée par les Chagossiens pour faire reconnaître — enfin, après 40 ans ! — leur droit imprescriptible au retour. Nous vous attendons nombreuses et nombreux à cette conférence. »

Diego Garcia : une importante base militaire américaine au cœur de l’océan Indien

« Dans un premier accord — accord secret — anglo-américain conclu en 1961, les États-Unis s’engagent à créer une base militaire dans l’océan Indien à la double condition que le territoire anglais retenu pour l’abriter échappe au processus de décolonisation et que sa population en soit totalement évacuée. Pour satisfaire ces exigences, les Britanniques ont fait des îles Chagos une nouvelle colonie de la Couronne par un décret-loi en date du 8 novembre 1965 avant de déporter la plupart de leurs habitants vers Maurice, entre 1967 et 1973. Pour faire face à la menace soviétique croissante dans l’océan Indien, les États-Unis et la Grande-Bretagne ont, par la suite, signé le 30 décembre 1966 un second traité portant cession à bail stratégique des Chagos pour une période initiale de 50 ans, éventuellement renouvelable au 30 décembre 2016. Dans ce contexte conflictuel, le récif corallien de Diego Garcia — l’île principale des Chagos — est devenu une importante base militaire en vertu d’un nouveau traité anglo-américain signé le 25 février 1976. « Malte de l’océan Indien », « Nouvelle Okinawa », « Œil du Pentagone » : en vérité, les formules ne manquent dans les états-majors des grandes Puissances maritimes et nucléaires comme dans la presse spécialisée pour qualifier une base stratégique qui a déjà joué un rôle déterminant lors des opérations « Tempête du désert » et « Liberté immuable » déclenchées par les Nations unies, respectivement contre l’Irak en 1991 et l’Afghanistan en 2001. De fait, Diego Garcia abrite aujourd’hui la plus grande base militaire américaine à l’extérieur du territoire des États-Unis et — en raison des menaces qui s’accumulent depuis plusieurs années au Proche-Orient et dans le golfe Arabo-Persique — il en sera vraisemblablement ainsi à l’avenir. Dès lors, la lutte des Chagossiens pour le droit au retour sur leurs terres natales ou la terre de leurs ancêtres doit faire l’objet de tout notre soutien. »

Source.

UN tribunal may challenge status Chagos

Britain's colonial-era decision to sever an Indian Ocean archipelago from Mauritius and turn it into a US military base will have to be justified before an international tribunal – a process that could lead to the return of the islands' exiled inhabitants.

The unexpected ruling this month by the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague that it can hear the case is a challenge to the UK's unilateral declaration in 2009 of a marine protected area around the Chagos Islands.

Decisions by the tribunal, which arbitrates in disputes over the United Nations law of the sea, are binding on the UK. At the preliminary hearing the UK's attempt to challenge the court's jurisdiction was defeated. Britain is now obliged to explain highly sensitive political decisions dating back to 1965.

Further reading.

Prominent Labour politician Prescott pleads for Chagossians

The scandal of what happened to the ­people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean is a terrible injustice.
Imagine you lived on a paradise island. Your ­family could trace its roots back more than 200 years.

Life was good. Home was a four-bedroom house and nearly everyone had a job – unemployment was only 3 per cent.

But then, without warning, you were told everyone was being ­expelled – you’d been sold out ­because your country had done a deal with a foreign power to get a discount on an arms deal.

And just in case you resisted, more than 1,000 dogs were rounded up and gassed to death, the threat being it could happen to you if you didn’t leave.

So you were frightened into ­leaving and dumped on the ­dockside of a foreign land 1,000 miles away with no money and no home. You had to live in a slum, seven people ­sharing one room and ­treated as second-class citizens by the local population.

This actually happened. But it wasn’t an African dictatorship that did this.

It was British ­governments, and the people ­expelled were ­British subjects.

Former UK vice-prime-minister John Prescott in the Sunday Mirror for further reading.

"Partout où je regarde, je vois Diego"

En 1965, au cœur de l’océan Indien, l’évacuation des îles Chagos est ordonnée. Quelques années plus tard, il ne reste plus un Chagossien aux Chagos. Sur l’île principale de Diego Garcia, une base militaire américaine est construite et toute approche civile interdite. 1971 : l’ONU déclare l’Océan Indien « zone de paix » (résolution 2832). En vain. Un demi siècle après le drame, les Chagossiens se rallient plus que jamais à leur mot d’ordre historique : « L’an prochain aux Chagos ». Et l’océan Indien cristallise les enjeux de ce nouveau siècle.
Suite.

Minority Rights Group on ECHR decision

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) today reiterated its call for the UK government to recognise the Chagos islanders’ fundamental right to go home, following the decision of the European Court of Human Rights today that their case was inadmissible on technical grounds. The Chagossians were expelled from their island home in the 1960s and 1970s so that it could be turned into a US military base. MRG has supported the islanders in their long struggle and was an intervenor before the European Court.

“Having expelled a whole people from their homes, the United Kingdom government is now washing its hands of all responsibility,” says Mark Lattimer, Executive Director of Minority Rights Group International. “The government has not even tried to defend what the Court today described as its ‘callous and shameful treatment’ of the islanders, but has simply relied on jurisdictional arguments.”

“The court described the legislation in this area as a ‘colonial remnant’, but the UK has shown that it is still determined to pursue the colonial mentality," he adds.

“The UK government is happy to defend the rights to self-determination of the Falkland Islanders, but when the Chagos Islanders appeal for protection from their government they are abandoned.”

MRG has been supporting the Chagos Islanders in their lengthy battle with the British government for the right to return home to their Indian Ocean archipelago home, a British overseas territory. They were forcibly removed in the 60s and 70s because Britain wanted to lease the biggest island, Diego Garcia, to the US for a top-secret military base.

Following an initial court victory by the Chagos Islanders in 2000, the then-foreign secretary chose not to appeal. But after 9/11, the military base of Diego Garcia became more important - including as a transit point for the US's illegal ‘rendition' of terrorist suspects. In 2004, the Foreign Office used the ancient powers of sovereign prerogative to overturn the earlier court ruling. Although in 2006 and 2007, judges found this use of the sovereign prerogative was illegal, the law lords upheld Foreign Office action, forcing the Chagos Islanders to go to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Decision in full

ECHR agrees glass beads and mirrors should calm Chagossians down

Exiled Chagos Islanders living in Britain and Mauritius have said they are "dumbstruck" by a European court ruling that it has no jurisdiction to examine their forced expulsion by the British government in the 1960s.

Their comments followed a decision by the European court of rights in Strasbourg which declared that the islanders "effectively renounced" their claims 30 years ago when they received compensation for resettlement from the UK authorities.

The ruling dashed the Chagossians' hopes of returning and appeared to block all legal avenues through the ECHR by concluding that individual Chagossians had no right of individual petition to the court in future.

"These proceedings were settled in 1982 on payment of £4m by the United Kingdom and provision of land worth £1m by Mauritius," the decision by the seven judges declared.

"In so settling, the islanders agreed to give up their claims. In the later Chagos Islanders case, the [UK] high court found that an attempt to claim further compensation and make further claims arising out of the expulsion and exclusion from the islands was an abuse since the claims had been renounced by the islanders."

Further reading.

Judgement postponed

R (Bancoult) v. Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Divisional Court, 21 November 2012: read judgment. (T)the Divisional Court was due to hear the Chagossians’ challenge to the designation of the waters around the islands as a Marine Protected Area, which prohibited all fishing. They said that this designation was motivated by a decision to stymie any remaining economic viability which the islands may have – the Chagossians’ traditional livelihood arose out of fishing. The main hearing of this challenge was due this week. The Court has now adjourned it, to be heard sometime in the New Year.

Rest of the story.

New colonial objections against return of Chagossians

The manoeuvres by which the Chagossians were evicted from their islands in the Indian Ocean, the late 1960s and early 1970s, so to enable the US to operate an air base on Diego Garcia, do not show the UK Foreign Office in its best light. Indeed, after a severe rebuke from the courts in 2000, the FCO accepted that the original law underlying their departure was unlawful, and agreed to investigate their possible resettlement on some of their islands. The first of these new cases is an environmental information appeal concerning the next phase of the story – how the FCO decided that it was not feasible to resettle the islanders in 2002-2004. This decision was taken in the modern way – backed by a feasibility study prepared by consultants supporting the stance which the FCO ultimately were to take. And this case concerns the islanders’ attempts to get documents lying behind and around the taking of this decision. From the islanders’ point of view, this decision by the FCO was more of the same. Unfeasible and uneconomic resettlement suited the FCO nicely. Yes, we moved you unlawfully 30 years ago, but you have to stay where you are because we now say it is impractical to move you back. The FCO countered – it is unfeasible, the islands need significant investment in infrastructure and employment (which the Chagossians could not provide from their own resources), and our consultants who carried out the review agree with us.

Further reading.

Diego

Caasya

Portraits of Chagossians

To be seen online.

A many-sided secret

The US has been a shadowy puppet master behind the UK's crimes against the indigenous people of the Chagos Archipelago. In the 1960s and 1970s, the UK forcibly removed the Chagossians from their islands to enable the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, one of the islands in the Archipelago. Diego Garcia is also where rendition planes allegedly stopped before spiriting people, such as Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, away to torture.

The expulsion of the Chagossians for the construction of the Diego Garcia military base is a "many-sided secret," to quote a 2002 cable signed by former US ambassador to the UK, William Stamps Farish. This secret received renewed attention when The Guardian recently reported how the UK lied about the Chagossians to avoid international outcry about their expulsion. Newly released archival documents from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) show that in 1970, the UK conspired to call the Chagossians "contract labourers" to ensure that no alarm bells would sound over the forced expulsion of the indigenous population.

Elena Landriscina on Chagos (further reading).

Interview with Olivier Bancoult

Olivier Bancoult was four years old when he left the archipelago in 1967. His little sister had been hurt in a cart accident and was taken to a local dispensary on Bancoult's home island of Peros Banhos, in the northeastern part of Chagos archipelago. But the nurse there didn't have the resources to help; the girl would have to travel to Mauritius, an African island nation 1300 miles away, for effective treatment.

"So my mom and dad decided that the whole family needed to move to Mauritius, but that we would move back after the treatment of my sister," recalls Bancoult.
Further reading.

Chagos and the Falklands - the contrast revisited

Forty years ago: Chagos.
Thirty years ago: Las Malvinas.
Guess which anniversary does not get attention?

Diego Garcia "mothballed" in 2016?

Apparently the occupation of the Chagos Archipelago is going to be "mothballed" as of 2016. Another archipelago should be awaiting the fate of being strategically positioned.

Further reading: here and here.