Britain to give back stolen isands?

johnthesavage

You might not have heard of the Chagos islands, but the largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, will be familiar to many as a US military base. It has been especially important in recent times, used to launch bombing raids on Afghanistan and Iraq.

The British government leased the islands (for one dollar per year) to the United States in 1966 in a secret deal, in return for millions of dollars of discounts on nuclear submarines. The entire population (about 2000 people) was evicted at gunpoint and dumped in Mauritius, left to rot in pitiful circumstances. For years the official policy was to deny that there had ever been a population there, until a landmark judgement in 2000 by the high court in London ruled that the islanders had the right to return home. This decision was overturned by secret "Royal Prerogative" without even informing parliament, let alone allowing debate.
The islanders went back to court and now the high court has once more ruled in their favour.

No doubt we can expect an imminent announcement from Washington that the US military will vacate its largest overseas base, and allow these unfortunate people to return home....

BBC News report:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4760879.stm

Read the full history here: http://www.chagossupport.org.uk/

Zebra3

Strange that the US wouldn't want to allow these people back in their homleand. Aren't they into democracry and all that lark or is it really only when it suits them?

As for the British, I look forward to the day they're taken to court over their concentration camps in Kenya in the 50s and their shocking abuses on local people which they still refuse to acknowledge.

If nazi war criminals are still being hunted today then there is no reason why these British facists who committed similar crimes a decade later should be allowed well-paid, peaceful retirement.

ISAW

johnthesavage wrote:

You might not have heard of the Chagos islands, but the largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, will be familiar to many as a US military base. It has been especially important in recent times, used to launch bombing raids on Afghanistan and Iraq.

I followed the story since last year.
This has massive implications. But I think the natives are happy to allow the americans to stay. The Us wont leave anyway. It is stratigecally important for the whole Indian Ocean and underpins the sixth? and seventh? fleet. There is no way the US authorities will allow a small country democracy or otherwise to tell them to remove their military.

the implications are elsewhere however.

John R

Zebra3 wrote:

Strange that the US wouldn't want to allow these people back in their homleand. Aren't they into democracry and all that lark or is it really only when it suits them?

Only when it suits them.

Their treatment of these people is pretty much standard as regards their attitude towards everyone else. All their high principles are only appliccable to Americans, treating others with contempt is perfectly acceptable if it is of benefit to them.

For decades they had a complete ban on any of the natives even visiting the island while thousands of US military personnel enjoyed their pacific paradise base.

Manic Moran

johnthesavage wrote:

This decision was overturned by secret "Royal Prerogative" without even informing parliament, let alone allowing debate.
The islanders went back to court and now the high court has once more ruled in their favour.

Interesting. I've never heard of such a thing, and am surprised that Her Majesty still has such a power, though given it's her government and she signs the laws, I guess it makes sense.

NTM

Victor

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/io.html (pardon my source )

ISAW wrote:

There is no way the US authorities will allow a small country democracy or otherwise to tell them to remove their military.

It never was a country and in any case was under the crown.

John R wrote:

For decades they had a complete ban on any of the natives even visiting the island while thousands of US military personnel enjoyed their pacific paradise base.

Ahem, Indian Ocean paradise base.

Manic Moran wrote:

Interesting. I've never heard of such a thing, and am surprised that Her Majesty still has such a power, though given it's her government and she signs the laws, I guess it makes sense.

Its possibly a crown territiory, not subject to parliament.

johnthesavage

Victor wrote:

It never was a country and in any case was under the crown......
....
Its possibly a crown territiory, not subject to parliament.

The islands were part of the British colony of Mauritius, but in order for the deal with the US to go ahead Britain created a new colony called the "British Indian Ocean Territory"

From http://www.chagossupport.org.uk
Until this time the Chagos islands had been part of the British colony of Mauritius, but in order to lease Diego Garcia to the US, Britain had to avoid giving the islands back to Mauritius when that country became independent in 1968. So, in 1965 the “British Indian Ocean Territory”, as the archipelago is now officially known, was invented for the sole purpose of setting up the base. It is the only new British colony to be established since decolonisation. This was a violation of UN Declaration 1514 of 1960 stating the inalienable right of colonial peoples to independence, and Resolution 2066 of 1965 (which Britain never signed), instructing Britain to “take no action which would dismember the territory of Mauritius and violate [its] territorial integrity”. Britain retains the islands to this day, promising to return them to Mauritius as soon as the US and the UK are done with them.

Not only did Britain have to effectively steal the islands, it also had to get rid of the people. The US took Diego Garcia only on condition that all the Chagos islands were uninhabited - the Chagossians had to go. To achieve this, Britain simply pretended that there were no Chagossians, and conspired to make sure their unlawful removal went unnoticed.

The Foreign Office invented a false history, claiming that the Chagossians were only itinerant labourers with no right of abode on the islands. This is a lie and they knew it - many Chagossians were fifth generation islanders. It is on record that one senior Foreign Office official described the islanders, in a letter, as 'mere Tarzans and Men Fridays'. The US and the UK succeeded in keeping secret what had happened for many years. A small token force of British naval personnel is kept on Diego Garcia, which is now the US’ largest overseas military base.

In 1967 the British government bought out the plantation owners, shut down the plantations and stopped the regular supply ship. With no warning or consultation, the islanders, numbering about 2000 at this time, were told that they were all being evicted. Those who tried to flee to the outer islands were rounded up. The islanders were isolated, intimidated, and tricked into believing that they would be settled into a similar environment with their own land and houses.

Armed men put the islanders in groups of 300 or more on to a ship designed to carry 50 and shipped them off to Mauritius or the Seychelles. They were forced to abandon their homes and all their possessions except one small bag each. These men slaughtered their livestock and destroyed their homes. Many of the exiles witnessed all of this.

Those who were on trips away at the time were simply not allowed back, left stranded in foreign lands with nothing but what they had with them. In 1971, Britain made it official with an Immigration Ordinance denying the Chagossians the right to ever return home.