Britain's overseas territories rarely get a mention in our national media. The Chagos Islands, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, are best known for their use by the CIA for the extraordinary rendition of suspected terrorists. We now know that the island of Diego Garcia was used in 2002 for the refuelling of two flights carrying detainees headed for Morocco and Guantanamo Bay. There is also strong evidence that the island is host to a CIA "black site" where "interrogations" have taken place, although the British government has denied this since questions were first raised about it in 2003 by Lord Wallace of Saltaire. But the history of human rights abuses on those islands goes back further, and continues to this day.
An estimated 2,000 Chagossians - descendents of Mauritanian workers brought there by the French in the 18th century - were expelled from their homes between 1967 and 1971 after the British government decided in 1966 to lease the largest island, Diego Garcia, to the US military. Most settled in Mauritius and the Seychelles, and although they received some monetary compensation, the Chagos Islanders, who now number more than 5,000, wish to return to their homes, and have been engaged in a legal campaign to do so since 1998. Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group, told the Foreign Affairs Committee last year:
"We were all removed and forced to leave everything behind. Arriving in Mauritius was a nightmare for us. No planning had been made. No house, no job; cast aside without any provision."
The British High Court ruled in November 2000 that the expulsion of the Chagos Islands' inhabitants was illegal, granting the Islanders the right to return to all of the islands except Diego Garcia. The British government has given numerous apologies, and repeated very recently that "we deeply regret the forced resettlement of the Chagossians and the hardship that has resulted from it." But such apologies mean nothing when the government is still fighting tooth and nail to prevent them from returning home.
The then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook promised that the government would not seek to appeal the High Court's decision, but in June 2004 the government issued an order banning the Chagossians from returning home, citing security considerations and the costs to the UK government of protecting them from flooding - flooding which has never been recorded on the islands. The decision may well have had more to do with the use of the US military base there as a launchpad for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is where de ja vu begins to set in: after another legal challenge from the Chagos Refugees Group, the High Court ruled the orders to be unlawful in May 2006; the Foreign Office appealed against that in 2007 but was again defeated, at which point it decided to appeal directly to the Law Lords.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee in 2008 revealed that the government had spent more than £2.1 million appealing the High Court's decision. Since then the case has gone to the House of Lords, where in October 2008 the Chagos Islanders lost their legal battle. The case will now go to the European Court of Human Rights, although a ruling is expected to be some years off.
The main reason given by the British government for denying them the right of return of is that they pose a threat to security, being so close to a US military base. However, the Chagossians are not asking to return to Diego Garcia - they only wish to return to the outer Chagos Islands, which lie 60 to 100 miles off the coast of Diego Garcia. Given that any boat is allowed to pass freely up to 3 miles from the island, the suggestion that people settling at that distance could pose a threat to the most powerful military in the world is laughable.
Some environmental campaigners, including the Chagos Environment Network, oppose the resettling of the islands on the grounds that it would threaten the natural environment. However, leaders of the exiled Chagos Islanders have said they are eager to be trained as guardians of the local ecosystem. Given that they preserved it so well for two centuries, it is difficult to believe that this community could pose more of a threat to the islands' wildlife than the military hardware and 4,000 personnel currently in the archipelago. I have also been informed by one campaigner that the founder, the treasurer and a third member of the Chagos Environment Network's Committee are Royal Navy commanders, which rather suggests that environmental concerns may be, at least in part, a ruse for the aforementioned "security considerations".
One might hope that President Obama's order to close all CIA black sites might signal a change in the security status of Diego Garcia, though Obama himself has yet to weigh in to the debate on the fate of Chagossians. In a recent debate on British Overseas Territories, Foreign Office Minister Gillian Merron restated the government's position that, as sorry as the government may be, "we cannot turn the clock back". I'm sure Chagos Islanders are only too aware of that fact. Here's hoping that the European Court will finally put an end to our government's shameful efforts to avoid doing the right thing.
2 comments:
Here, here. Thank you for disseminating the plight of the Chagos Islanders, especially when, in circumstances where they have every right to be resentful and bitter, there seems to be a conciliatory middle-ground option that would be amenable to both parties. With the flick of a pen or a few words in Brown's ear, Obama could end this ongoing tragedy; both he and the UK government should be pressured to do so.
amazing post hannah, and much needed to be said.
i think i read about this in john pilger's book as well, but really, that isn't it enough. it should be written and spoken about far more widely.
argh - sometimes i despair at how little i know about international affairs because i rely so heavily on the news! and the more i watch the news the more i realise how little is really being reported. why the hell was the nwe series of strictly come dancing considered the NEWS on bbc1 when this is happening.
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