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UK: Chagosians protest at theft of their country

01 January 2006

Chagos Islanders protested at the High Court in December, demanding the right to return to their homeland. The islanders were removed by the British government during the 1960s and 1970s to enable the USA to build a military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The base was a key component for the US Air Force in its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; some journalists have also reported that it is also used as a torture and interrogation centre, a smaller version of Guantanamo Bay, although the British government insists that it is ignorant about these allegations. The Chagosian population was flown into exile in Mauritius after their forced eviction; many of these exiles now live in destitution and poverty. The island of Diego Garcia was first settled in the late eighteenth century and was inhabited by at least 2,000 people before it was "ethnically cleansed".

The demonstration at the High Court accompanied a legal action by Louis Bancoult, one of the thousands of Chagosians evicted from their homes, to overturn the legislation that prevented the islanders from returning. In November 2000 Bancould won a historic High Court decision quashing their eviction but in a 2003 follow-up case the islanders were refused compensation. In June last year the Foreign Office overruled the Court's 2000 decision using the anachronistic "royal prerogative" to overturn the High Court. A decree was issued that bans the islanders from ever returning to their home.