Chagos Islanders' Court Win
Chagossian Indigenous Peoples Return To Homelands
Chagos Islanders have won the right to return to their native lands, from which they were once expelled by the British to make room for the American military.
Between 1967 and 1973 the Indigenous people of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean were subjected to a series of expulsions that saw 1500 people forcibly removed from 65 islands. This blatant violation of international law took place to accommodate the construction of a massive American military base.
The Islanders have won court cases before, allowing them to return, as no court could uphold such a violation of international law. But those court decisions were reversed by the Blair government, due to Britain's "special relationship" with the United States. So following that, nobody but military personnel were allowed to live on the islands.
Following the end of the Blair government, the case went before the courts again, and once again the High Court in London condemned the U.S. actions against the Chagos islanders as "repugnant". The court overturned Blair's reversal of previous court decisions, and went on to say that, "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an order in council, exile a whole population from a British Overseas Territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is to us repugnant."
What the judges didn't know was that the forced removals were demanded by the Americans as part of a secret agreement that Britain would receive a discounted nuclear missile system in exchange for the use of the Chagos Islands, devoid of natives of course. Nearby Aldabra Island would not suffice, as it was inhabited by rare turtles. Aboriginal people are easier to get rid of than turtles, and there's less chance of international protest if you destroy Indigenous people than if you destroy an animal population. So Chagos it was.
But for the moment the Chagossians are allowed to pack up their meagre belongings from the Mauritian slums in which they were dumped, and return with the remnants of their population to their homelands. These aborigines, who were described by the British diplomatic service as "a few Tarzans or Men Fridays" (very diplomatic!), are now legally free to try and rebuild a life from the fragments of their shattered culture. However, in reality there have been reports of Chagossians being chased off the islands by military personnel. The Americans have argued that the Chagossians are a threat to security. But the British Government is in a tough position, sandwiched between the demands of a superpower and international law.
The Chagossians' solicitor said: "The responsibility of our present Government for victimising its own citizens, and its subservience to the demands of a foreign power, are all too obvious. This is the fourth time in five years that Her Majesty's judges have deplored the treatment inflicted upon this fragile community."
The understandably nervous foreign office tried to hide behind their queen, as it was the power of the monarch that the government had previously used to overturn the court decisions regarding the return of the Islanders. However, the high court slammed this and insisted that, "The decision was in reality that of the Foreign Secretary, not of Her Majesty, and is subject to challenge by way of judicial review in the ordinary way."
In an effort to placate the Chagossians, the foreign office generously provided transport for 100 Islanders to return home.
