Britain Blocks Islanders Ever Going Home

Taken from The Telegraph, UK, 05 Feb 2007
By David Blair

More than three decades after British islands in the Indian Ocean were depopulated to make way for an American base, the Government will ask the courts today to ban the inhabitants from ever returning home.

The Chagos Islands, forming the British Indian Ocean Territory, are one of the world's most isolated archipelagos, found some 2,200 miles east of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast.



At America's request, Britain cleared the islands of all 2,000 of their inhabitants – referred to by one Foreign Office diplomat as "Tarzans and Men Fridays" – between 1966 and 1973. After this, a US naval and air base was constructed on the biggest island, Diego Garcia.

The High Court has twice given the islanders, known as the Chagossians, the right to return and Britain had initially accepted the ruling when the islanders won their first case in 2000.

But today the Government will try and overturn a second ruling in the Court of Appeal.

"The evidence points to this being done largely at Washington's request," said Clive Baldwin, from the Minority Rights Group, which is campaigning for the Chagossians. "After September 11 and with the island being used as a base for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military value of Diego Garcia has increased."

When the islanders won their first case in 2000, the Government accepted the ruling. Robin Cook, then the foreign secretary, said: "The Government will not be appealing." He declined to defend "what was done or said 30 years ago".

The Government issued an order allowing the Chagossians, who were deported to Mauritius, to return home, while reserving Diego Garcia for military use. But after the terrorist attacks on September 11, this policy was abruptly reversed.

Bombers operating from Diego Garcia can strike deep into the Middle East and South Asia. Naval vessels using its harbour can patrol the strategically vital waters of the Indian Ocean and the approaches to the Red Sea. Diego Garcia was a crucial launching pad for the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Some 1,000 American and 40 British military personnel are based there.
In 2004, Jack Straw, as foreign secretary, issued a new order banning the Chagossians from going home. Once again, this was overturned in the High Court, which ruled in favour of the islanders and gave them a right to return last year.

A letter of November 2004 from Lincoln Bloomfield, an assistant secretary at the US state department, to Robert Culshaw, a British official responsible for overseas territories, read: "Diego Garcia is a vital and indispensable platform for global US military operations. . . an attempt to resettle any of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago would severely compromise Diego Garcia's unparalleled security and have a deleterious impact on our military operations."

Asked about its motivations for today's appeal, a Foreign Office spokesman declined to comment on the case. "Our hands are tied by the ongoing legal action," he said.

Further Reading:
CBS News, 13.06.03: Diego Garcia: Exiles Still Barred

BBC News, 10.01.01 Diego Garcia: remembering paradise lost

US Navy Website: United States Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia