Chagossians reclaim our land:people evicted by the UK,land leased to the US military

[seemslikeadream]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3667764379758632511&q=John+Pilger&total=164&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9

http://www.refusingtokill.net/Chagos/chagos.htm

Chagos is an Archipelago in the Indian Ocean administered by the British government. Between 1965 and 1973, the UK and US, with the complicity of Mauritius, evicted 5000 Chagossian people from Chagos islands (including Diego Garcia) to make way for the biggest US nuclear/military base outside the US.

The British government leases the Chagos Archipelago to the US for at least $2 billions a year and other concessions - e.g. £5 million owed to the US for the Polaris nuclear missile was waived. The US military is increasing the pressure to stop us from returning and reclaiming our home.

We have been organising for the right to return to our native land and for financial compensation for what we have suffered: for the crime of forced deportation, the theft and destruction of our livelihood and property, and the attempt to wipe out our identity and our culture.

To justify our deportation, the UK government lied to the United Nations, claiming that Chagossians were temporary workers from the Seychelles and Mauritius. It took 30 years to get the UN to recognise that we are Native people, living on these islands since 1776 - when the French brought our ancestors there as slaves.

http://www.tradeport.org/countries/diegogarcia/01grw.html

No indigenous inhabitants.
Note: Approximately 1,200 former agricultural workers resident in the Chagos Archipelago, often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois, were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles around the time of the construction of UK-US military facilities on Diego Garcia (between 1967 and 1973); in 1995, there were approximately 1,700 UK and US military personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors living on the island of Diego Garcia.
In 2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration order, which had excluded the Chagossians/Ilois from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of Diego Garcia.

[dipsydoodle]

1. This is the latest news on the subject

LONDON, (Reuters) - In a hidden corner room of Britain's Royal Courts of Justice, filled by lawyers in wigs and nervous Indian Ocean islanders, black-robed law lords this week handed victory to David over Goliath. It may not be the last bout in a tortuous 40-year struggle by residents to return to Diego Garcia, a remote island in the Chagos archipelago turned into a strategic U.S. military base, but it certainly brought that prospect closer.

In a decision handed down by the law lord in charge of appeals, the Master of the Rolls Sir Anthony Clarke, flanked on his dais by two equally grave judges, it was decreed the British government had abused its power when it evicted the Chagossians four decades ago. The Chagossians could go home.

"The freedom to return to one's homeland, however poor and barren the conditions of life ... (is) one of the most fundamental liberties known to human beings," read the decision. There was a ripple of excitement in court, though the 20 or so Chagossians at the back were remarkably restrained, perhaps unsure they had understood correctly the highfalutin legalese.

http://sundaytimes.lk/070527/International/i514.html

In reaching this judgement the Law Lords had overruled Tiny Blur's use of the Royal Perogative which had had the effect of it making it illegal for them EVER to return.

[seemslikeadream]

3. and turned into a crucial U.S. military hub, especially for bombers and spy planes.

bombers for Iraq and Afghanistan


Thanks edwardlindy

[PDJane]

2. John Pilger has been covering this for years,

and has uncovered the documents in London about the shameful things that were done to remove the Chagos Islanders, including killing their pets.

It's disgraceful and it's disgusting, a blatant abuse of imperial power.

It becomes even worse if you realize that the brits went to war over the Falklands, to save a few thousand white bodies; not the same as Diego Garcia, where the inhabitants were black.

[UKProPeace]

4. One of the many crimes committed by our country i'm very ashamed of

Those people deserve much more respect than to be evicted from their properties, and sold out to the US military....not exactly the same thing here (in terms of the levels of crimes committed) but fairly close when all those military bases were built originally, the residents were originally promised their land back, still hasn't happened though.