UK okays world's biggest sea reserve, angers islanders

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

By Adrian Croft

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Britain created the world's biggest marine reserve in its Indian Ocean territory on Thursday, pleasing environmentalists but angering exiled Chagos Islanders who say it creates an obstacle to them returning home.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband ordered the creation of a marine reserve, where commercial fishing is banned, in the British Indian Ocean Territory, made up of 55 tiny islands, including Diego Garcia, which houses a U.S. air base.

Some 2,000 Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed from the archipelago in the 1960s and '70s to make way for the American base and have waged a long legal battle for the right to return.

Representatives of the Chagos Islanders, who have now taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights, argue that the creation of the reserve will stop them returning home because it bars fishing, their main livelihood.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINTRE63046T20100401

[Rapier09]

1. Chagos Islanders

ALL YOUR ISLANDS BELONG TO US.

[Ebadlun]

2. May I be the first Brit to express surprise that we still have an Indian Ocean Territory?

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

- What are the odds, that they'll win their case in the EU, only for the island to be overtaken and swallowed up by the sea due to climate change?