Court of Appeal says British government abused power in blocking Chagos islanders' return

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Associated Press

The British government abused its powers in preventing the return of Chagos islanders who were evicted to make way for a major U.S. air base, the Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday.

The government indicated it would appeal to the House of Lords.

Lord Justice Stephen Sedley, writing the main ruling, said the government acted unlawfully in using an Order in Council — not subject to Parliamentary debate — to stop the islanders from returning.

Lord Justice George Waller said the decision had been taken by a government minister "acting without any constraint."

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/23/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Chagos-Islands.php

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The government, of course, despite having lost every single legal case, is still taking the appeal further, so that it doesn't have to do anything yet. All British governments have tried to wash their hands of this, with no regard for the Chagos islander's lives. Because Diego Garcia is just too useful, both as an airbase, and a black hole of a prison, where there's no oversight whatsoever, for human rights to have any chance of being upheld.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Chagos islanders win right to return

Source: The Guardian

also our BBC teletext news but not yet posted on their online news site

Families who were expelled from the Chagos Islands to make way for the Diego Garcia US airbase 30 years ago won their legal battle to return home today.
The families - ordered from the islands by the British government - packed the court of appeal to hear the ruling, which condemned government tactics preventing their return as unlawful and an abuse of power.

The court ruled that thousands of people who were tricked, starved and even terrorised from their homes could return immediately, with the decision likely to draw a line under what is widely seen as one of the most shameful episodes in British colonial history.






Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2086261,00.html

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watch this when you have the time : John Pilger's documentary Stealing a Nation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6633024118233381439&q=john+pilger+chagos+islanders

[MADem]

2. To be clear, to other islands in the chain -- not DG itself

Today, they defeated the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, who had taken the case to the court of appeal. They had not sought to return to Diego Garcia itself, but to other islands in the chain.

Speaking amid triumphant scenes outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Richard Gifford, the solicitor for the islanders, said: "It has been held that the ties which bind a people to its homeland are so fundamental that no executive order can lawfully abrogate those rights.

"This is now the third time that Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossian community in exile, has proved to the satisfaction of English judges that nothing can separate his compatriots from their homeland.

"They now call upon the British government for a new start in this abusive relationship and to proceed with the utmost urgency to restore these loyal British subjects to their homeland."

Explaining the court's decision, Lord Justice Sedley said that "while a natural or man-made disaster could warrant the temporary, perhaps even indefinite, removal of a population for its own safety and so rank as an act of governance, the permanent exclusion of an entire population from its homeland for reasons unconnected with their collective well-being cannot have that character and accordingly cannot be lawfully accomplished by use of the prerogative power of governance".

[loudsue]

4. A reminder: OUR TAXES fund that military base that tore these people from their land.

There is NO REASON for the U.S. to have hundreds of military bases, and all the expense for maintaining them, all around the world. We need to get OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S COUNTRIES and get back home. Home, where we protect OUR homeland, pour tax dollars back into OUR communities, and quit pissing people off all around the globe.

Our military is making us LESS SAFE all around the world. This IS NOT "the old days".

:kick::kick::kick:

[MADem]

6. Well, your points aside, we have WAY FEWER bases than we did during the Cold War

Of course, BushCo is building bases left and right in the Middle East, so he's working very hard at undoing all of the drawdown effort that Clinton worked so hard on.

We've already undergone a couple of BRACS in the last few decades that not only cut bases around the world, but also here in the US.

AS for DGar, it's a shameful chapter, but the base has been there for over half a century. Most of the people who lived there are aged, or dead. The outlying islanders weren't kicked out at the same time, I don't think, so many of them are younger.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. No, the base was built in the 1970s

See the timeline in reply #3. That was at the same time (within a few years) that all of the islands were forcibly emptied.

[MADem]

10. They actually started the process in the mid-60s.

Anyone who left wasn't allowed back. That's mentioned in that timeline.

They added on to the base continuously for two decades, and for all we know, subsequent to that as well--as Vietnam wound down, a lot of the SEABEE assets that had been doing construction work there were diverted to DGAR to build all sorts of shit--the main function of the base, originally, was as a NAVCOMSTA (built in 1971) and port. Once the runway went in (which was originally seen as just a supply line), they started seeing all sorts of possibilities (including Maritime Prepositioning and other missions) and they then were off to the races. They built like mad from then on, all sorts of shit. But that wasn't the original vision. The fact that Vietnam finally ended had an influence on the pace of construction, certainly and the location, though remote, had advantages in that no one could easily check up on what people were doing.

The last islander was gone from there in 71, but most inhabitants were kicked off in the sixties.
So forty years, then--it's still a long time.

They allowed some of them to go back a while ago to tend graves and whatnot. Something like a hundred of them went.

The US/UK are unlikely to give up DGAR in the lifetimes of these people, who realize they're not ever going home to that hunk of rock.

The US lease runs through 2036--with an opportunity to review in 2016, if they want. If anything, absent any major world changes, I'd imagine they'll want to renew and they'll try to get a 99 year lease next time--that's some VERY convenient real estate, from a military perspective--especially with the way the world is looking nowadays and into the future. You're close to Africa, but not too close.

[Warpy]

5. At last!

What they did to those people is hideous. One of the things they did was round up all house pets on the islands and destroy them, with the obvious message to the islanders that "you're next!"

This was a combined US-UK effort to steal their homes.

The rates of alcoholism and suicide among dispossessed islanders have been enormous. The right to return won't solve all their problems, the damage has been done to them, but it's good to see an attempt at justice.

[polvo]

3. It's about time

Here's a timeline detailing how the islanders were evicted from the archipelago.

[xxqqqzme]

7. That documentary tells the tragic story.

I saw it not long ago. Isn't this the 2nd or 3rd time these people have 'won' this right to return?

[dipsydoodle]

8. It's been going through different appeals.

There's only one left now and I'm not sure that Turdy Blur would use it. This also reduced the chances of the lease being renewed in 2016.

[MADem]

11. That's not a "renewal" timeframe. That's a "review date."

UK owns the thing. They bought it off Mauritius when Independence went down, and will only give it back if they think they no longer need it for defense. I rather doubt they'll give up the money they get if US wants to stay on, to be plain about it. US has a lease until 2036, with an opportunity to review in 2016. The UK makes a fortune selling "fishing rights" in the area as well. It's a moneymaker, plain and simple.

Although classed as a joint UK/US base, in practice it is mainly staffed by the American military, although a small British garrison is maintained at all times, and Royal Air Force long range patrol aircraft are deployed there.....In 1965, the United Kingdom split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, and the islands of Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches (Des Roches) from the Seychelles to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. The purpose was to allow the construction of military facilities for the mutual benefit of the United Kingdom and the United States. The islands were formally established as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom on November 8, 1965. On June 23, 1976, Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches were returned to Seychelles as a result of it attaining independence. Subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago.

The creation of BIOT has been subject to legal controversy, as some legal opinions from international law experts say that the decision to separate the BIOT from Mauritius was illegal because international law does not allow the dismembering of a country before independence. However the decision was taken with the full agreement of the Mauritius Council of Ministers.

Interesting website, with photos, here:

http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/seabees.html

[struggle4progress]

12. Court Rules for Islanders Evicted in U.S. Base Deal (WaPo)

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 25, 2007; Page A15

LONDON, May 24 -- Families forced to leave the Chagos Islands, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, to make way for a U.S. military base at Diego Garcia during the Cold War have won a key legal victory in their long struggle to return.

The Court of Appeal in London ruled in favor of the islanders Wednesday and criticized the British government for "abuse of power." All 2,000 or so inhabitants were evicted from the archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s and have never been allowed back.

The largest of the 65 islands is Diego Garcia, an atoll where the United States operates a large military base under lease from Britain. The base has been used to launch bombing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. ~snip~

In the past, U.S. officials have opposed allowing people to live on any of the Chagos Islands, arguing that their presence could lead to electronic jamming and surveillance of military operations. ~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402265.html?hpid=sec-world