chagossians: in search of justice

7/30/2019 CHAGOSSIANS: IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

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CHAGOSSIANS: IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

The chagossians (natives of Diego Garcia), who had been evicted from their native

place to Seychelles and then Mauritius after a furtive conversion of British Indian OceanTerritories (B.I.O.T.) to American military base in 1970s, have been looking for their

justice from a long back. Thereupon, the recent judgment given by the British High Court

on May 11, 2006 and corroborated by the Court of Appeal on May 23, 2007 bestowed

some rays of hope to these chagossians. As per high court judgment, chagossians were

entitled to return the Chagos Archipelago.

Diego Garcia, a tiny island in the Southern Hemisphere of Indian Ocean has been

explored by the Portuguese in the early 16th

century, but the islands remained uninhabited

until the 18th century when the France established Copra plantation. In due course of

time, Diego Garcia became possession of U.K. (specifically after Napoleonic War) and

from 1814 to 1965, it was a dependency of Mauritius.

Image 1

In 1965, Mauritians got their independence at the cost of detachment of Diego

Garcia from Mauritius and to found it part of the British Indian Ocean territories.

Meanwhile, British and the United States governments secretly made an agreement in

the early 1960s to convert it into Military base. Just before granting Mauritius


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independence in 1968, the British government unilaterally handed over Diego Garcia to

the U.S.A.

Although, in the year 1966, the crown bought the Islands and the plantations; at

that time, it had been under private ownership and which had not been profitable with theintroduction of new oils and lubricants. In 1971, the plantations were closed because of

the agreement between the U.K. and U.S.A. to make Diego Garcia available to the U.S.A.

as a military base. No payment was made as part of this agreement, although, it has been

claimed that the U.K. received a U.S. $ 14 millions discount on the acquisition of Polaris

missiles from the U.S.A. This agreement also forbids any other economic activity on the

islands.

Moreover, this collusion between U.K. and U.S.A. forcibly depopulated the nativepopulation, known as the chagossians (or Ilois), who were the descendants of East Indian

workers and African slaves who had been brought to the island in the late 18th and 19th

centuries to work on the coconut and copra plantations.

Finally, in mid 1970s, Diego Garcia became home to a military base of U.S.A.

The base serves as a naval refueling and support station. Besides, it also has an air base

that supports the largest modern aircraft B-52s, other bombers, and aerial refueling. Apart

from this, the base is part of the US Space Surveillance Network with a three telescopes

GEODSS Station, and is a NASA Space Shuttle emergency landing site. Diego Garcia

also hosts one of three ground antennas (others two are on Kwajalein and Ascension

Island) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System Navigational System.

The geographical location of this island in the south Indian Ocean acts as the most

strategic point in order to reconnoiter most of the countries of Asia including Russia.

And, it is already proven through following wars i.e. during 1991 Gulf War; it was home

to the 4300 Provisional Bombing Wings. It has also been used in support of military

missions in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and to Iraq again during

2003 invasion.

Apart from this, a number of al Qaeda Suspects are thought to be held and

interrogated on the island (although, the U.S.A. military did not confirm this) including


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Humbali (Riduam Isamuddin), the leader of the Asian terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah

responsible for the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali.

The chagossians now leaving deprived life in Mauritius urban slums and some of

them leave in Seychelles. Ever since their expulsion, they have been continuouslyasserting their right to return to Diego Garcia in the British court.

Consequently, in 2000 the British high court ruled that the order to evacuate Diego

Garcias inhabitants were invalid, hence, the native islanders granted not only right to

return to the Archipelago but also granted them U.K. citizenship. But, the court also

upheld the islands military status which permits only pe rsonal authorized by the military

to inhabit the island, and it rinsed the all hope of chagossians. Therefore, in 2002 the

islanders and their descendants now numbering 4500 again knocked the door of BritishHigh Court, claiming compensations after what they said were two years of delays by the

British Foreign Office.

Moreover, on June 10, 2004, the British Government under strong pressure from

the U.S.A., (which has cited securities reason for keeping away the islanders from

returning), prohibited islander from ever returning to Diego Garcia, reversing the 2000

court decision.

But the new verdict of British High Court (May 11, 2006) describes the

governments conduct as outrageous, unlawful and a breach of accepted moral

standards and hence pave the way for the islanders to move elsewhere in the Chagos

archipelago to the Salomon island and Peros Banhos, which are located more than 100

miles from Diego Garcia.

After this verdict, the U.S.A. however is opposed to any one other than military

personnel and their employees leaving anywhere in the Chagos archipelago asserting that

securities will be compromised. According to U.S.A. allowing civilians on the

archipelago could foment terrorist activities on the islands.

On the contrary, chagossian are making return plans and turn Diego Garcia into a

sugarcane and fishing enterprise as soon as the defence agreement expires (the agreement

between the U.K. and U.S.A. for the U.S.A. to use the island as a military base was made


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in 1966. it specify that the agreement runs until 2036, but the either government can opt

out of the agreement in 2016).

But now, we people can only wait and watch that whether the U.S.A. government

again dismantles the dream of chagossians returning to their native island by reinstating the agreement or welcomes British Courts decision and underpin them to implement,

because now it is loggerheads with the worlds two super powers.


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References:

Cherian John, Fate of Chagossians (published in Frontline June, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garcia

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/io.html

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

http://www.chagosinternational.org/files/index.php

http://chagosislands.com/

Image 1:http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/images/dgchagos2.gif

Cover Image:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-

Chagos_map.PNG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garciahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garciahttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/io.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/io.htmlhttp://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/realhistory.htmlhttp://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/realhistory.htmlhttp://www.chagosinternational.org/files/index.phphttp://www.chagosinternational.org/files/index.phphttp://chagosislands.com/http://chagosislands.com/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/images/dgchagos2.gifhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/images/dgchagos2.gifhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/images/dgchagos2.gifhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-Chagos_map.PNGhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-Chagos_map.PNGhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-Chagos_map.PNGhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-Chagos_map.PNGhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Chagos_map.PNG/687px-Chagos_map.PNGhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/images/dgchagos2.gifhttp://chagosislands.com/http://www.chagosinternational.org/files/index.phphttp://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/realhistory.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/io.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garcia

chagossians: in search of justice

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