Chagos Islands, illegal fishing and war

This video from Britain is called My Island Home – Chagos Islands.

From Wildlife Extra:

Illegal fishing inside Chagos Marine Reserve

Greenpeace finds illegal fishing vessels & urges UK to enforce Chagos marine reserve

October 2012. Greenpeace found two illegal Sri Lankan fishing boats inside the Chagos Marine Reserve and has called on the UK government to enforce protection of this Indian Ocean reserve from pirate fishing.

Rainbow Warrior

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior is currently transiting from Mauritius to the Maldives as part of its Indian Ocean expedition and found in total three fishing boats deep within the Chagos Marine Protected Area, established by the UK government in 2010.

Dozens of sharks & tuna

Onboard one vessel, identified as IMUL-A-0352KLT, Greenpeace found dozens of sharks, including thresher sharks, a protected species in this region. This boat is not on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) list of registered vessels and is illegal. A second boat, identified as IMUL-A-12939MTR, was not on the IOTC list either and is illegal. Greenpeace also boarded that vessel, mainly finding skipjack tuna.

Gillnets and longlines

These fishing boats use indiscriminate gillnets and longlines to catch sharks, tuna and other marine life.

“We are demanding the UK government inspect these vessels and actively protect the marine reserve from illegal fishing. Without enforcement this protected area is not worth the paper it is written on,” said Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner Simon Clydesdale on board the Rainbow Warrior.

Greenpeace has given the details of the vessels to the regional authorities as well as the Foreign Office in London, urging Britain to send its patrol vessel the Pacific Marlin out from the nearby US military base Diego Garcia, where it was believed to be at anchor, to inspect the three vessels.

I mainly agree with this article. Yet, only this sentence of it deals with a problem even worse for the Chagos islands than illegal fishing: the Diego Garcia military base. To build that base, the inhabitants of the Chagos islands were forcibly driven away from their homeland; and they are still not allowed to return. Like military bases in general, that base is bad for the environment. Diego Garcia base has been used for torture. It has been used for war in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. And now, it may be used for yet another bloody war against Iran (fortunately, the London and Washington governments do not seem to be on the same page yet about this; and I hope that they never will).

Greenpeace encountered a third vessel, identified as IMUL-A-0341KLT. This boat was authorised to fish in the region but not inside the Chagos protected area.

“Illegal fishing is a massive problem in the Indian Ocean. It is stealing from coastal communities and plunders marine life such as sharks.

As I noted, in the Chagos islands, the “coastal communities”, the Chagos islanders, were forcibly driven away to build the military base.

Boats that repeatedly fail to comply with the rules must be stopped. Our oceans need fewer fishing vessels that are properly controlled if we are to reverse the current overfishing crisis,” said Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Sari Tolvanen.

Greenpeace is calling on key market players and tuna brands to ensure they have a traceable supply chain and only source tuna that is legal and comes from sustainable sources.

The Rainbow Warrior is continuing its mission in the Indian Ocean to highlight the problems associated with excessive tuna fishing, unsustainable fishing practices, and the need for countries to cooperate and ensure that communities will benefit from the wealth coming from the oceans in the future.

Related articles

• Stop overfishing off Masbate, CamSur, Greenpeace urges gov’t (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• Saving our seas: Jellyfish, slime and the Chagos Islanders (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• The Tale of an Island: Imperialism in Action (onestrugglesouthflorida.wordpress.com)
• Rainbow Warrior visiting Maldives as part of two month Indian Ocean tour (minivannews.com)
• Aaron Gray-Block: Joining the Rainbow Warrior (huffingtonpost.com)
• A bit fishy: Greenpeace hits out (smh.com.au)
• Marine Protected Areas skyrocket (bbc.co.uk)
• Fish: Illegal fishing persists in Barbuda waters (antiguaobserver.com)
• Protecting Noa’s Ark (greenpeace.org)

British colonial bases for war against Iran?

This video says about itself:

6 August 2007

Chagossian refugees are appealing to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to make a decision on their right to return to their islands.

They were expelled four decades ago by Britain from their tropical archipelago. This happened during the Cold War to make way for a U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The base has since been used for military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In May, Britain’s High Court dismissed an appeal by the Foreign Office against the Chagossians’ return, saying the right to go home was “one of the most fundamental liberties known to human beings”.

Jacques Aristide takes a closer look at the Chagossians’ struggle to go back to their homeland.

By Peter Symonds:

US sought use of British bases for war against Iran

27 October 2012

The British-based Guardian newspaper reported Thursday that American diplomats have been lobbying Britain for the use of its military bases on Cyprus as well as US bases on the British territories of Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for war on Iran.

The US request points to a massive military buildup against Iran. The Pentagon has already stationed two aircraft carrier battle groups in or near the Persian Gulf, along with additional minesweepers and a specialised floating base that could be used to launch special forces operations inside Iran. A squadron of advanced F-22 fighters has also been moved to the region.

Access to the bases on Cyprus, Ascension Island and Diego Garcia would significantly boost the ability of the US air force to wage round-the-clock strikes against Iran.

The British government has, to date, rebuffed the Pentagon, significantly pointing out that an unprovoked US attack on Iran could be illegal under international law, as Tehran did not currently represent “a clear and present threat”.

British officials have cited advice drafted by the attorney general’s office that has been circulated to the Prime Minister’s office, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. A senior government official told the Guardian: “The UK could be in breach of international law if it facilitated what amounted to a pre-emptive strike on Iran. It is explicit.”

Like the US-led illegal invasion of Iraq, the Obama administration is preparing to launch a war of aggression against Iran. This was the chief crime for which Nazi leaders were tried and convicted at Nuremberg following World War II.

That Iran is not “a clear and present threat” also punctures the steady buildup of propaganda in the US and international media about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.

WikiLeaks reveals how West’s Iran war drive was undermined: here.

Related articles

• Britain ‘rebuffs US plans over Iran operation’ (thejc.com)
• Iran military action not ‘right course at this time’, Downing Street says (guardian.co.uk)
• U.S. And Great Britain Not On Same Page On Iran (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Britain says talks under way with U.S. on base use (dailystar.com.lb)
• Britain rejects US request to use UK bases in nuclear standoff with Iran (guardian.co.uk)
• Britain Rejects US Request To Use UK Bases In Nuclear Standoff With Iran (businessinsider.com)
• Britain ‘rejects US requests to use UK military bases for build-up of forces in Gulf’ (dailymail.co.uk)
• Britain refuses US request to use military bases against Iran (smh.com.au)

Beautiful Cocos islands destroyed by militarism?

This video is called Cocos (Keeling) Islands – Australia.

From Neville Coleman’s site in Australia:

The idyllic Cocos (Keeling) Islands are made up of 27 separate coral islands, which are excellent for scuba diving, snorkeling and especially, for underwater photography.

The marine life is known to contain 528 species of fish, 89 species of echinoderms, seven reptiles, six marine mammals (including a resident dugong), 610 species of molluscs, 198 decapod crustaceans, 13 barnacles and 99 species of corals.

More on Cocos islands wildlife is here.

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC and Sorel Wilby presents a new documentary on remote Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. From the internationally significant birdlife to the phenomenal migration of the red crabs, we cover the best of these islands: here.

By Peter Boyle in Australia:

Cocos Islands could be new base for the US killing machine

Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands is a tiny group of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean 2800 kilometres north-west of Perth and 900 kilometres from Java. It has a population of about 600.

These islands were nominally a British territory between 1858 and 1955, when they were transferred by a British act of parliament to Australia. Yet for the next 17 years, the Australian government allowed the islands to operate as a private fiefdom of the Clunies-Ross family — just as the British had for 100 years before then.

The islands were uninhabited until 1826, when Alexander Hare, a former minor British colonial official, set up an establishment with about 50 slaves, mainly of Malay background, and a personal “harem” he had collected from many colonial outposts.

Hare was displaced a year later by his former business partner, John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish ship captain whose descendants enriched themselves on the labour of the Malay plantation workforce, who they paid with tokens that could be spent on only the company store.

The Malay islanders had no access to formal education, but the Clunies-Ross children were sent to private schools in Britain. The head of the Clunies-Ross family was the island’s lawmaker, judge and administrator. Anyone who did not accept his rule was banished.

So it is no surprise that, when the Cocos Islanders were finally given the choice between independence, free association and integration with Australia in 1984, they overwhelmingly voted in secret ballot for integration. Only members of the Clunies-Ross family and a couple of loyal servants were in favour of “independence”.

But the Australian government did not offer the islanders their liberation from semi-feudalism just out of respect for freedom.

Kenneth Chan, the Australian administrator on the Cocos Islands from 1983-85 admitted in a largely unnoticed academic paper he wrote in 1987 that the islands’ strategic location was the main motivation to acquire and integrate this Indian Ocean territory.

The islands were used as a military base by the British in World Wars I and II. Now, the US military wants the islands as a base for drones and other spy planes. Pentagon officials hope Australia will make up for a possible closure or downgrading of its main Indian Ocean island military base in Diego Garcia, which the US leased from Britain in 1966.

The US built its giant base on Diego Garcia in the 1970s after the 2000 Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed through trickery and starvation, a colonial crime exposed to the world relatively recently.

The US has used Diego Garcia as a base for nuclear weapons, marines, warships, bombers and spy planes. It has used it as a transit station for political prisoners sent for “rendition” to other countries so they can be tortured, though this is officially denied. Diego Garcia is a strategic hub of the US killing machine.

But the US lease runs out in 2016 and the Pentagon wants to relocate at least some of the military functions of the base to various Australian bases in Western Australia, Darwin and the Cocos Islands.

The Gillard Labor government and the Liberal-National opposition wholeheartedly support this process and have already agreed to station thousands of US marines in Darwin.

Green Left Weekly opposes all new US bases and campaigns for the closure of the existing nominally “joint US-Australian” military bases.

The first unit of American marines to be stationed in the city of Darwin has arrived, and preparations for US ships and long range bombers to use Australian military bases are proceeding apace: here.

10 top events on Christmas and Cocos islands: here.

British government betrays Chagos islanders again

From British daily News Line:

Wednesday, 22 September 2010 CHAGOS FURY – OVER CABLE BETRAYAL!

THE Chagossian community in Crawley have reacted with fury after an offer from the coalition government and Vince Cable to allow the islanders to return to their homeland was immediately withdrawn.

Cable had written in a letter that ‘Steps have already been taken to ensure their return.’

The islanders were brutally evicted from the Chagos islands in the 1960s and 70s by British governments who made a secret deal to allow the US military to build a huge base on Diego Garcia.

Cable, who was a member of the Chagos All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), signed a letter stamped House of Commons on the 9th September to one of his constituents, Dr Beckmann, ‘regarding the repatriation of the Chagos islanders’.

In the letter, he states: ‘I remain committed to ensuring that the plight of the islanders is resolved in a just and fair way. The Liberal Democrats have actively supported their cause in the past and we will continue to aid their campaign to see justice done.’

He continues: ‘The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, is also committed to a fair settlement of this long-standing dispute. Steps have already been taken to ensure their return.

‘The Coalition Government are dropping the case in the European Court of Human Rights opting instead for a friendly settlement. The previous Government were trying to uphold the expulsion.’

No sooner had the letter been published by the New Statesman, when the magazine was contacted by an official from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, informing them that the letter from Cable had been ‘sent in error by his constituency office’ and that another letter would be sent out as soon as possible ‘saying something different’, stated the magazine.

Not surprisingly, the ‘administrative error’ has astonished and infuriated Chagossians.

Hengride Permal, the chair of the Chagos Islands Community Association said: ‘This proves that you cannot trust British governments.

‘We urge all trade unions and all trade unionists, and all the people of the UK to get behind our struggle.

‘Give us your support. Fight alongside us. March with us. We are determined to return to our Chagos Islands!’

Marie-France, secretary of the Chagos Island Community Association, told News Line: ‘It is disgraceful to do this to us.

‘Because you don’t just write a letter: you first meet your members or committee and consult with them before you put your signature to a letter which relates to a case in the European court and is able to be published.

‘So you can’t sign a letter and then say that this is an error. It can’t be an error if it has got your name signed at the bottom.

‘What further upsets us is that a member of the government has acted in such a cruel way to the Chagossian people and yet it is not considered newsworthy. None of the daily papers in this country have mentioned this disgrace except in a magazine.

‘And no-one has even said sorry for pledging support and then withdrawing it a half hour later. It is truly shocking.

‘This is just further evidence of the way we have been treated since being thrown off our islands. It’s political because of our case in Strasbourg.’

Jean-Claude Luc, who was born on Diego Garcia and exiled to the Seychelles, said: ‘The British government is able to make a mistake but the Chagossian people are not allowed to make a mistake.

‘The British government in the 1970s, when they offered a small amount of money for compensation to the Chagossian people, who were poor in writing and reading, they told us to sign but didn’t tell us we would lose our right to return to our homeland.

‘They tried to trick us. The people signed because they did not know; to them it was just black and white on a piece of paper.

‘When the Chagossian people continue to fight for their right to return home, and proper compensation, the British government say there was no mistake because the Chagossians already signed for compensation.

‘But today, the same people sign their name to a piece of paper and call it a mistake. Who in the world can understand that!

‘This is not the Chagossian signature – this is the British government signature on a piece of paper. So do not say this is a mistake!

‘In this world today, the Chagossian people are not stupid – our mind is open, our eyes are open, we know everything.

‘I am so angry. Maybe the British government think they are dealing with animals in a zoo that don’t know anything.

‘Today, the Chagossians can stand up to them and can speak with them clear and say: I have a right, you have stolen my right – now give me my right back!’

David Snoxell, former British high commissioner to Mauritius (2000-2004), who is co-ordinator of the Chagos APPG, remarked: ‘Chagossian hopes have been raised and dashed several times over the last decade — but never before in a single afternoon.’

It is a far cry from Snoxell’s previous evaluation of ‘Chagos supporter’ Cable, before becoming a minister, saying he was ‘a very honourable man, and it is clear that his convictions on this matter are deeply felt’.

Chagos Islands exiles amazed by Foreign Office’s opposition to Maldives seabed claim: here.

November 2010. Commercial fishing around the Chagos Archipelago has now ended making it the largest no-take marine protected area (MPA) in the world: here.

Wikileaks cables reveal Foreign Office misled parliament over Diego Garcia: here.

Related articles

• Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve (guardian.co.uk)
• Chagos Islanders defeated in European Court (telegraph.co.uk)
• Chagos islanders lose fight for rights (itv.com)
• The European Court of Human Rights urgently needs to decide on the Chagossians’ right to return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• William Hague should say sorry to the Chagos Islanders and restore the right of return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Convenient freedom: a tale of two islands (abc.net.au)
• Falklanders have no nation to claim (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve (digger666.com)
• Quick, send in the marines! (morningstaronline.co.uk)

Torture island Diego Garcia

This video says about itself:

‘Stealing A Nation’ (2004) is an extraordinary film about the plight of the Chagos Islands, whose indigenous population was secretly and brutally expelled by British Governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s to make way for an American military base. The tragedy, which falls within the remit of the International Criminal Court as “a crime against humanity”, is told by Islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and by British officials who left behind a damning trail of Foreign Office documents.

From British daily News Line:

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

LABOUR’S SECRET DETENTIONS ON DIEGO GARCIA

Legal charity Reprieve yesterday demanded the British government reveal details of the secret illegal detention of ‘ghost’ prisoner Mustafa Setmariam Naser on Diego Garcia and asked two UN Special Rapporteurs to urgently investigate his disappearance.

Reprieve said in a statement: ‘Mustafa Setmariam Naser was ‘disappeared’ while in US custody in 2005.

‘Reprieve has learned that he was sent to Syria, where he is held incommunicado in shocking conditions and almost certainly tortured.

‘It seems the US deliberately “disappeared” him to a rights-abusing regime once he stopped being useful for intelligence purposes.

‘The UK shares responsibility for Mr Naser’s disappearance because of its complicity in his “ghost” detention on Diego Garcia and elsewhere.’

More about Diego Garcia: here. And here.

US Military Expelled Some Diego Garcia Residents to Make Way for Military Base: here. And here.

The British government is hiding behind a “wall of secrecy” over claims its agents were complicit in the torture of “terrorism” suspects, a parliamentary committee has said: here.

New Labour ministers have refused to give a cast-iron assurance that the British government will never collude with torture: here. And here. And here.

‘US and British governments embroiled in enforced disappearances’ – charges Reprieve: here.

A Window Into C.I.A.’s Embrace of Secret Jails: here.

Despite scant police evidence, the Australian media has universally depicted five Muslim men arrested on August 4 in the course of extensive police raids as guilty of an extraordinary plot to attack an army base: here.

LALIT calls for Diego Garcia military base Inspection by IAEA: here.

January 2010. One of the world’s largest coral atolls, which belongs to Britain, could soon become the biggest marine protected area on Earth. A three-month public consultation is underway to persuade Gordon Brown to protect the Chagos Archipelago a group of 55 tropical British islands, which lie in the heart of the Indian Ocean. 10,000 people have already signed up in support of the campaign: here.

Wildlife of the Chagos islands: here.

Conservationists want to turn archipelago into a giant sea-life reserve. But what about the exiled population whose hopes of going home would be dashed forever? Here.

CHAGOS ISLANDERS MAY WIN BACK THE RIGHT TO RETURN says Royal Holloway Report: here.

Related articles

• The Tale of an Island: Imperialism in Action (onestrugglesouthflorida.wordpress.com)
• Chagos Islands operation cancelled (southgatearc.org)
• Britain ‘rebuffs US plans over Iran operation’ (thejc.com)
• Britain Rejects US Request to Use Bases in Attacking Iran (news.antiwar.com)
• UK-US talks over military bases use (express.co.uk)
• U.S. And Great Britain Not On Same Page On Iran (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Action against Iran: UK and US hold talks over military bases: Discussions have taken place between British and … (independent.co.uk)
• British Won’t Go Along with Illegal Iran War Planning by Americans (reason.com)

Ethnically cleansed Chagos islanders and British trade unionists

This video is about Chagos.

From British daily News Line:

Thursday, 11 September 2008

RETURN US TO OUR CHAGOS ISLANDS – Hengrid Permal urges TUC Congress delegates

‘FORCE this British government to carry out the rightful decision to return us back to our beautiful islands and put an end to these years of misery that our families have had to bear.’

So said Hengride Permal, chair of the Chagos Islands Community Association, when she opened a 100-strong meeting of Chagos Islanders and TUC delegates at the TUC Congress in Brighton yesterday.

Permal told the meeting: ‘In 1966, the then Wilson government moved the whole Chagossian population from our islands so that Diego Garcia could be given to the United States to use as an army base.’

She added: ‘They moved us into the unliveable slums of Mauritius.

‘At first they killed our animals, as a threat that this would happen to us.

‘They herded us onto boats and dumped us in the Seychelles and in the dock area of Mauritius.

‘Families were terrified and heartbroken.

‘Many never recovered and died from what the doctors called “sadness’’, even children.’

She added: ‘When in 2002 the British government offered us full British passports, many families moved here for a better life.

‘But we can only get poorly paid employment, we have a language problem and particularly the older ones have bad health problems.

‘It is 40 years now and the older generations are beginning to die, never to be able to return back and see their island homes where generations lived.

‘Our right to return has been upheld by the High Court three times.

‘Each time the British government has appealed against it and has lost its appeal, but still they refuse to allow us to return because the US base is more important to them.

‘Now the government has made its last final appeal to the House of Lords to stop us returning and we will hear the result in October.

‘We believe they will lose this appeal and are just spending huge sums of money to delay our return.

‘As soon as we hear, we intend to call a big lobby of Downing Street to demand we have the right to return immediately and for all Chagossians.’

She added: ‘We’ve had enough of governments deciding for us.

‘We also want the US base in Diego Garcia removed, the US government pays no rent. They get it for free. . . .

‘We would like to ask the TUC to pass a short emergency resolution supporting our right to return and demanding the withdrawal of the US from Diego Garcia.’

Concluding, she said: ‘We know that British workers stand very firm on their principles and are internationalists.

‘We ask you to help us right this terrible wrong that has been done to us.’

Prison Officers Association General Secretary Brian Caton said: ‘I was ignorant until three weeks ago about your struggle.

‘I believed we live in a civilised country until I saw the John Pilger documentary.

‘I was appalled. This government fails to listen to the country and fails to recognise people’s needs.

‘We will give you every support.’

He added: ‘For over 40 years, to be in your position, is more than a struggle.’

He continued: ‘The Tolpuddle Martyrs were shipped off to an island.

‘The trade union movement said we want them to come home.

‘Let’s send a message today to the government: we will get you home.’

Keith Sonnet, deputy-general secretary of UNISON, said he had been following the Chagos situation for years.

He said: ‘It is one of the most shameful episodes in British imperialist history.

‘It happened under a Labour government, the Wilson government.’

He added: ‘I had hoped with the Labour government coming in in 1997, there would have been justice, that it would have accepted the decisions of the courts.

‘It’s disgraceful that they went to the House of Lords.

‘I hope they will without question say the islanders have the right to return.’

He concluded that after 42 years, they should dismantle the base and pay compensation to the islanders.

Sue Bond, vice-president of the PCS, said: ‘The UK collusion with US interests is shameful.

‘It has continued under this government.’

She added: The ‘PCS supports your demands to close the base and return to the islands.

‘What inspires me more than anything else is your refusal to be cast as victims and to fight on until you win.

‘That will be a victory, not just for you, and the justice you deserve, but a victory for the millions of us across the world who oppose the whole system of domination by US imperialism and our government’s shameful support.’

GMB Regional Secretary Richard Ascough said: ‘In recent imperialist history this was one of the most shameful episodes. What was done was absolutely terrible.

‘We need to bring this up at the Labour Party conference and to lobby Downing Street to ensure their rightful return.

‘The GMB is delighted to be associated with your struggle. It is shameful what has been done to you in our name.

‘The GMB will continue to support your right to return home.’

See also here. And here.

Chagos update 28 October 2008: here.

Turn disputed Chagos Islands into marine reserve, say conservationists: here.

ISLAND OF SHAME: The secret history of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia: here.

Related articles

• Chagos islanders lose fight for rights (itv.com)
• Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve (guardian.co.uk)
• The European Court of Human Rights urgently needs to decide on the Chagossians’ right to return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Convenient freedom: a tale of two islands (abc.net.au)
• William Hague should say sorry to the Chagos Islanders and restore the right of return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Falklanders have no nation to claim (morningstaronline.co.uk)

UK: Chagos islanders, expelled for US military base, win legal victory

From the BBC:

Chagos families win legal battle

Families expelled from the Chagos Islands by the British have won their legal battle for the right to return home at the Court of Appeal.

Some 2,000 residents were forced out when the British colony in the Indian Ocean was leased to the US in the 1960s to build an airbase at Diego Garcia.

The government took the case to the Court of Appeal after two earlier rulings declared the actions unlawful.

It has a month to decide whether to appeal to the House of Lords.

Many former residents of the Chagos Islands now live in Mauritius or in the UK.

“To accept the islanders’ right to return but do nothing about it… would be meaningless and immoral”

Robert Bain, UK Chagos Support Association chairman

They were evicted from their homes on the Chagos archipelago between Africa and Indonesia, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

See also here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Related articles

• Chagos islanders lose fight for rights (itv.com)
• Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve (guardian.co.uk)
• The European Court of Human Rights urgently needs to decide on the Chagossians’ right to return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Convenient freedom: a tale of two islands (abc.net.au)
• Quick, send in the marines! (morningstaronline.co.uk)

Britain: Chagos islanders demonstrate for right to return to their homeland

From British daily News Line:

Monday, 12 February 2007

UNIONS BACK ISLANDERS’ STRUGGLE – hundreds march through Crawley

MORE than 400 Chagos Islanders and their supporters marched through Crawley town centre on Saturday, shouting: ‘We will return to Diego Garcia – it’s our right!’

Led by the banner of the Chagos Islanders Community Association, the march was joined by leading members of the GMB and Amicus trade unions, as well as members of the Young Socialists, as it made its way past the offices of West Sussex County Council and Crawley Town Hall, before going through the busy shopping centre.

The chants continued with: ‘Blair, Bush you should know, Chagos people are going home!’ and ‘Victory to the Chagos Islanders! Return them to their homes!’ – with islanders also shouting slogans in French.

Islanders carried placards saying: ‘We come from British Indian Ocean Territory – British government respect us’ and ‘Give our people their island – Diego Garcia’.

Diego Garcia was turned into a military base after having been ‘cleansed’ of its people; a base now for Bush’s wars.

Update: here.

Related articles

• Chagos islanders lose fight for rights (itv.com)
• Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve (guardian.co.uk)
• The European Court of Human Rights urgently needs to decide on the Chagossians’ right to return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Chagos Islanders Lose the European Court Battle but the Struggle Continues (fairobserver.com)
• William Hague should say sorry to the Chagos Islanders and restore the right of return (blogs.independent.co.uk)
• Falklanders have no nation to claim (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Convenient freedom: a tale of two islands (abc.net.au)