Diego Garcia Judgement Day

[ORAC]

Grauniad: Day of judgment in the Lords for evicted Chagos islanders (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/22/lords-foreignpolicy-chagosislanders)

The long-running legal battle between the British government and the Chagos islanders over their eviction from their homes in the Indian Ocean nearly 40 years ago will reach its conclusion in the House of Lords this morning. The law lords will deliver their ruling on whether the surviving islanders have the right to return, after being removed from the archipelago to make way for the base on Diego Garcia.

Nine Chagossians flew in from their current homes in Mauritius yesterday, joining exiles who have settled in Crawley to hear the judgment of Lords Bingham, Hoffman, Rodger, Carswell and Mance.

Today's ruling is the last stage of a lengthy legal battle launched in the name of Olivier Bancoult, one of the evicted islanders, in 1998.

Both the divisional court and the court of appeal have ruled in favour of the Chagossians' right to return to the outer islands, which do not include Diego Garcia, but the Foreign Office appealed against those judgments in the Lords. "We remain hopeful that once and for all there will be a conclusion that will see justice for the Chagossian people," said Bashir Khan of the Chagos Refugees Group UK.........

[BEagle]

From BBC News:

The US has also indicated that any return of islanders would compromise its military presence.

According to Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, who has voiced his support for the cause of the Chagossians in the House of Commons, the islanders were "victims of big-power politics".

He said: "These islanders were inconvenient to the nuclear wishes of the United States. This was an injustice of mammoth proportions.

"It was a racist approach to a group of people who had looked after the islands, preserved the islands, who were just in the way."

Most of the islanders were sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles where they encountered racism and discrimination as well as poverty.

In 2002, the islanders were given the right to British passports.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Internet/zxzxz.jpg

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territories. The Americans are allowed to base aircraft there. But they have no territorial rights.

[D-IFF_ident]

Just how, exactly, could they compromise the US military presence? A handful of aged attack donkeys and some sugar-cane blow-pipes? :rolleyes:

[ORAC]

BBC: Chagos exiles ruling overturned

Exiled residents of the Chagos Islands have had the right to return to their Indian Ocean homeland overturned by the House of Lords.

The government won its appeal against a court decision that had ruled in favour of 2,000 former residents of the British overseas territory. The Law Lords decision is the final judgement in the long-running case.

The former residents were evicted from the islands between 1967 and 1971 as part of a secret deal with the US. In 2000, High Court judges ruled that Chagossians could return to 65 of the islands. In 2004 the government used the royal prerogative - exercised by ministers in the Queen's name - to effectively nullify the decision.

Last year, the court overturned that order and rejected the government argument that the royal prerogative was immune from scrutiny. The government had asked the Lords to rule on the issue.

The exiled residents had hoped that if the Law Lords ruling had gone in their favour, their heritage could be rebuilt around a new tourist industry.

[green granite]

The Law Lords decision is the final judgement in the long-running case

What about the European court of human rights can they not appeal to them after the HofL? After all they've much more of a human rights case than some of these bloody criminals that get thousands out of the government.

[JackRyan]

This is disgraceful. Our government has done all it can to further the liberal agenda of promoting 'human rights'. Here it has had a chance to do the right thing but won't because of Uncle Sam.

[pr00ne]

Jack Ryan,

Agreed.

A disgraceful decision.

[dallas]

Sometimes doing the right thing is a bit inconvenient, don't you know? Interesting though that even the House of Lords can be spiked when it suits - another example of our just and fair society.

[GreenKnight121]

D-IFF_ident, ORAC has the answer to your question...
The exiled residents had hoped that if the Law Lords ruling had gone in their favour, their heritage could be rebuilt around a new tourist industry.

Gobs of whoevers from wherever, arriving by whatever means... ya think undesirables might be among them?

[CirrusF]

Gobs of whoevers from wherever, arriving by whatever means... ya think undesirables might be among them?


And how does that differ from the situation in any other country?

Not only is the original eviction and this upholding of the eviction inhumane, it also damages the reputation of the UK.

[Trojan1981]

Disgraceful. Only a huge public show of support in the UK, plus a change of government, can help them now.

What about the European court of human rights can they not appeal to them after the HofL? After all they've much more of a human rights case than some of these bloody criminals that get thousands out of the government.

I have dual Oz/UK citizenship, as my entire family up to myself were born in the UK. Despite this I have not lived there and I don't understand how the European and British legal systems come together.
Would the European court of human rights have juristiction and would the British government have to comply if it found in favour of the Chargos Islanders?

[JackRyan]

Well Trojan, without referenda/ums the UK government has signed up to increasingly controlling European law; we have a few vetoes and the British pound remaining. The interesting thing about this case is that letting the Chagossians return would be the socialist / European / 'human rights' way of doing things. The fact that the Lords have not voted in this way indicates who is really in power around here: the United States of America. It's quite sad if you look at the Chagos on Google Earth, they do look like a beautiful chain of islands. I can certainly imagine Diego Garcia sits unpleasantly with its BX and Taco Bell.

Are you aware your username is the same as the top-selling US condom?

[Tourist]

Disagree with the lot of you.

So what if a couple of thousand people have been inconvenienced?

Compulsory purchase is nothing new, and it was all done during the cold war when important things were at stake.

Defence is important

[SeldomFixit]

Well then Tourist, I can see why it was ok then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:confused:

[uffington sb]

Tourist.

I take it you're talking about YOUR defence, and I think the people have been a little bit more than just 'inconvenienced'.

I don't recall the entire population being evicted from Addu Attol to make way for RAF Gan.

[Wader2]

They weren't evicted from Addu Atoll but they were certainly not able to stay on Gan overnight.

I don't know the facts for sure but I believe the Male Government insisted that the causeway linking Gan and Hiatdo (?) was removed so that the workers could either wade to work or row in a dhoni.

They recognised that the British presence could enrich the Addu natives to a greater extent than the rest of the archipelago and were keen that we did not contaminate them with goods that would be unsustainable when the British lease expired.

Whether the eviction was British or Male, I don't know, but evicted they were.

[Training Risky]

If we are going to make legal decisions based on revisionist history...

...let's pay a sizeable percentage of our GDP to all the African govts from whom we nicked a lot of people to make into slaves. After all, these govts seem to argue that their development has been hindered over the centuries due to the slave trade and depletion of their populations (wouldn't have anything to do with corruption and tribal politics wuold it?!)

...let's pay a sizeable percentage of our GDP to the Abbos and Maoris who we 'massacred' in order to grab their land. Oh the shame of our colonial legacy...!

...let's pay a sizeable percentage of our GDP to the cities of Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne...get the picture?

:}

[CirrusF]

Training Risky, just because nations were allowed to get away with various genocides in the past does not excuse them from paying fair and proper reparation now. Holding nations to account for crimes is just as important as holding individuals to account.

If nations were obliged to pay reparations for unjust wars in a systematic fashion, then the USA should have paid reparation for the invasion of Vietnam. If they had been obliged to pay reparations for the war crimes they committed in Vietnam, you can be sure there would be a lot of entirely innocent Iraqis and Afghans still alive today. They (and us) may have also hesitated in invading Iraq on an equally fabricated and unnecessary premise if they were obliged to pay reparations if their justification for the invasion was proven incorrect (which was the case - no WMD).

[Roland Pulfrew]

just because nations were allowed to get away with various genocides in the past does not excuse them from paying fair and proper reparation now

What a load of rubbish.:rolleyes: Does that mean the Italians should be paying us reparations for the slaves taken from Britain during the Roman invasion? Or the Norwegians and Danes paying reparations for all the raping and pillaging? Or? Or ? Or? We, they were the powerful state(s) at the relevant time in HISTORY. It happened, get over it!! In a few years it will be the turn of the Chinese and the Indians.

[CirrusF]

Roland you miss my point. Putting in place a system that punishes war crimes commited in the near past will prevent them recurring. We can't revisit every conflict in human history, but we can still revisit those injustices where the direct first-generation victims are still alive today - eg from WW2 onwards. This would include the Chagos Islanders, amongst many others.

I disagree with claims by second-generation descendants of victims (eg the jewish compensation industry in USA against anybody they can possibly sue). We have to start somewhere in history, so let's make it now. and start properly compensating living victims of war crimes.

Incidentally, I link into that, the UK victims of our current stupid and unnecessary wars. I think that it is very interesting to see the growing power and influence of UK coroners over the democratic process. Once families of servicemen are properly compensated for following orders to execute unjust wars, then it will discourage governments from usurping the legal and democratic process to enter war, which was what happened in the lead up to Telic.

[Ronald Reagan]

As someone who comes from the right of the political spectrum and is very pro military I feel these people should e able to go home. The base should stay as it is. But I thought this country and the USA were supposed to be about democracy and freedom!? To go to those islands and remove the people who lived there by force just stinks! Maybe Russia could come here and remove the UK population as they want to use the UK as a free fire zone or for whatever crap reason! They could move us to France, Germany or Ireland! Bet the locals would love that!!!!
As for the Americans to say it will be a security threat is just unreal! But then again considering how they act at Lakenheath and Mildenhall sometimes we are all the enemy to them!
I guess we just have to ask ourselves do we think it was right or wrong to remove these people. Its like something the Soviets or Nazis would have done!
Many bring up the idea of slavery, vikings and Romans etc. But these events were so long ago no one who they effected is still alive.

[CirrusF]

Ronald Reagan - you are correct and such injustices are often the cause of long conflicts around the world. If the Chagos Islanders now start a terrorist movement to overturn a gross injustice against them, who could blame them?

[Roland Pulfrew]

Maybe Russia could come here and remove the UK population Hilarious.:rolleyes: That's why we have armed forces. I don't think Russia in its weakened state could even attempt to do so by force. Mind you, after ZaNu Labour have finished with the armed forces.... who knows. They would be quicker to turn off the oil and gas, or just buy up Iceland.

The Chagos Islands were, still are, British territory. We have even done the same to our own citizens - Rutland Water anyone?

We have to start somewhere in history

Why do we? It is history, even if it recent history. If we start by saying its post WWII then there will be those that claim it is "unjust" that we ignore those pre-WWII, or pre WWI. Are the French going to do it? Or the Portuguese? Or the Italians? Or the Japanese? Or the etc etc. Or would we be the only stupid mugs doing it? So that would be higher taxes to pay for something done by our fathers or grandfathers or great grandfathers.:ugh:

UK coroners over the democratic process

Actually I don't think the coroners are part of the democratic process.

discourage governments from usurping the legal and democratic process to enter war, which was what happened in the lead up to Telic

And your evidence for that is? Yes there was a dodgy dossier, but where was the usurping of the democratic process?

And "no" I am not a fan of Liarbour!

[Ronald Reagan]

Roland Russia could beat the UK very rapidly! Our forces are so small I would imagine they would simply be swamped. Plus Russia is getting stronger while we get weaker every year! The defence cuts have turned our Navy into a yaht club and the RAF into a flying club! We once had the greatest Navy the world has ever seen and a superb and LARGE air force to! What do we have now 25 ships and 200 combat jets?! (Most of which are broken on the ground!) Sounds like the last days of the USSR! Oh the irony! (Even the USAF is not doing much better by the sounds of the F-15/F-16 retirment plans!) We do have a superb army which is to small but they are simply the best. Sorry for the massvie thread drift above!
I see your points about history but those events are so long ago the people the events concern are dead as are in many cases their children!
These people are from the cold war time frame. If they got into a boat tomorrow and went home good luck to them!

[The Nr Fairy]

Putting in place a system that punishes war crimes committed in the near past will prevent them recurring

Bollocks. Man will continue to be inhuman to man. Punishing war crimes is good, but it won't prevent the acts in the first place.

[spannersatKL]

Marvellous Joe Yank (spouting freedom, invade Iraq for their freedom etc.) has a base that is on an island owned by UK (freedom etc.) where the inhabitants are booted off to allow him to oppress the rest of us!! To add insult to injury those poor souls booted out have to live in Crawley!!!! No justice is there.

[Ewan Whosearmy]

Why do we? It is history, even if it recent history.

In which case, how can anyone be held accountable for their actions?

Should Radovan Karadovicz be released because what he did is now confined to the annals of history? What about those individuals responsible for war crimes in various African nations over the last two decades?

Where do *you* draw the line?

[brickhistory]

cirrus,

then the USA should have paid reparation for the invasion of Vietnam. If they had been obliged to pay reparations for the war crimes they committed in Vietnam,

I think you'll find the North Vietnamese were the "invaders."

The US was invited by the, then, South Vietnamese government.

As the North won, I guess they are immune from your call for "justice."

I love the New Age use of the term "war crime."

As a reminder, for you and the others bashing the US, it is YOUR territory. Your legal/legislative/executive could have decided otherwise, but didn't.

Somehow, that's the US' fault?

Neat trick.

[JackRyan]

Let's resolve these old colonial burdens now | Matthew Parris - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5057772.ece)

A very good article from Matthew Parris in today's Times; some good ideas on Diego Garcia. I wasn't aware that, during the Falklands war, the US initially wouldn't permit Vulcan refuelling at Ascension - beyond shocking!

[ninja-lewis]

I thought the Vulcan situation at Ascension was more to do with pre-existing agreements and rules. The American base commander's orders (as of before the conflict) said he couldn't directly support offensive operations launching from the Wideawake. It wasn't his job to change US Foreign Policy unilaterally so he reminded the British officer in charge of the Ascension operation that he couldn't support the Vulcans as it stood while at the same time asking his CoC if he could. The DoD without question then sent him the required change in orders along with all the other assistance they gave us. However, some senior folks (like Nott) took this the wrong way as they weren't briefed on all the details.

That's not probably not how it happened exactly but it's the impression I got from Vulcan 607.

[StbdD]

Maybe it was because they knew that a squad of well trained clams could have done as much damage as Black Buck did and didn’t want to be associated with it?


As to RAF Diego Garcia, it would seem the UK has a vested interest in it existing. Rumour has it a Vulcan even landed there once or twice.

Lacking any Vulcans, maybe letting the US assume the missions, foot the bills, and take the bad press is a good idea.

[Squirrel 41]

The issue with Diego is the manner that the way it was created. First things first: Diego exists within the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT); BIOT was in fact created out of islands (the Chagos group) that would otherwise have gone to the Maldives and the Seychelles on independence. BIOT itself was only created to host Diego. This all happened from 1965 onwards, with the construction of the base starting in 1971.

The population of the Chagos archipelago was evicted to Mauritius by 1973, with some evidence that the force and deception were used to move the people off the islands. These evictions took place in two stages - first to Peros Banos in the northern element of the Chagos group, and then to Mauritius. It was an underhand and totally cynical operation to cement relations with the US - and within such a narrow understanding, completely understandable by the British Government of the day.

But it wasn't just, and the Chagossians / Illois have been fighting their cause for 35 years. It is incomprehensible to me that we should not do all we can to allow them to return to the outer islands - well away from the flightpath - or wherever possible, to employ them as contractors on the base. I know that there are concerns about the capacity of the islands to produce enough fresh water etc etc, but these are technical issues with technical solutions.

Fundamentally, what the British government did in the mid-60s is a stain on our national honour, and should be put right: and if it takes international humiliation at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to force us to do the right thing, then it serves us right.

S41

Hey, moving house is always stressful | Andy Zaltzman - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5009998.ece)

[Modern Elmo]

Fundamentally, what the British government did in the mid-60s is a stain on our national honour, and should be put right: and if it takes international humiliation at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to force us to do the right thing, then it serves us right.

Well, why not build these ShagOssians a nice council estate somewhere in England, with high def. cable TV in every flat, and give 'em all nicely paid jobs as community organizers?

Won't that be sufficient humiliation?

[Trojan1981]

Jack Ryan
Are you aware your username is the same as the top-selling US condom?:}:D:D
No, I didn't know that! It is a 36 Sqn RAAF (C-130H when I was in, now C-17 Globmasters) Callsign.
Thanks for the heads up re the UK leagal system.

Squirrel 41, Good post. A lot of people don't realise just how recently these events occured.

[GordonR_Cape]

Thread resurrection, a decade later: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47358602

The UK should end its control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean "as rapidly as possible", the UN's highest court has said.

Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands - now a British overseas territory - in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968.

The International Court of Justice said the islands were not lawfully separated from the former colony of Mauritius.

[ORAC]

The judgement is an advisory non-binding opinion.

[beardy]

I blame the French .

[Chris Kebab]

A really miserable piece of British foreign policy.

[dead_pan]

The judgement is an advisory non-binding opinion.

Sounds familiar...

Given recent events I foresee absolutely no difficulties in sorting this issue out.

[jolihokistix]

Damning article by John Pilger in Al Jazeera. Not easy reading.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/britain-forcefully-depopulated-archipelago-190225082624527.html