Duncan Campbell: The ghosts of the past ... Foreign Office versus Chagos
[Duncan Campbell is a senior correspondent with the Guardian where he has worked since 1987.]
If there is a clanking sound in the corridors of parliament on Monday, it could well be "the chains of the ghosts of the past" - the phrase used by high court judges to describe the Foreign Office's behaviour towards a small group of Indian Ocean islanders who next week take a strange and shocking case to the law lords.
A deputation of Chagos islanders has arrived in Britain to hear what should be the final episode in their long legal battle to return to the homeland from which they were removed more than 40 years ago. They arrive with the wind of all the previous judgments, in divisional and appeal courts, in their sails, and hope for a third victory that would allow their right to return.
To recap: about 2,000 people from Diego Garcia and surrounding islands were removed from their homes between 1965 and 1973 to make way for a US military base. What was effectively a forced expulsion was part of a cold war deal between the British government and the US. The islands had been part of Mauritius, which was offered independence by Harold Wilson's government if it abandoned Diego Garcia and its surrounding small islands and agreed to take the expelled Chagossians. The exiles did not fare well on Mauritius, and many were soon parted from their small compensation payments, drifting into alcohol and drug addiction and prostitution. The US base at Diego Garcia has been used by aircraft taking off for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In 2000, a group of islanders took their case to the divisional court in London and won the right to return, a move backed by the then foreign secretary, Robin Cook, as part of the government's new ethical foreign policy. In the wake of September 11, with the US concerned about their base, the FCO appealed against the ruling. It was not until 2007 that the Chagossians won again at the court of appeal. The FCO appealed once more and now the law lords have agreed to hear the case on the understanding that the FCO will pay all costs, regardless of the result. This is the end of the legal line...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
If there is a clanking sound in the corridors of parliament on Monday, it could well be "the chains of the ghosts of the past" - the phrase used by high court judges to describe the Foreign Office's behaviour towards a small group of Indian Ocean islanders who next week take a strange and shocking case to the law lords.
A deputation of Chagos islanders has arrived in Britain to hear what should be the final episode in their long legal battle to return to the homeland from which they were removed more than 40 years ago. They arrive with the wind of all the previous judgments, in divisional and appeal courts, in their sails, and hope for a third victory that would allow their right to return.
To recap: about 2,000 people from Diego Garcia and surrounding islands were removed from their homes between 1965 and 1973 to make way for a US military base. What was effectively a forced expulsion was part of a cold war deal between the British government and the US. The islands had been part of Mauritius, which was offered independence by Harold Wilson's government if it abandoned Diego Garcia and its surrounding small islands and agreed to take the expelled Chagossians. The exiles did not fare well on Mauritius, and many were soon parted from their small compensation payments, drifting into alcohol and drug addiction and prostitution. The US base at Diego Garcia has been used by aircraft taking off for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In 2000, a group of islanders took their case to the divisional court in London and won the right to return, a move backed by the then foreign secretary, Robin Cook, as part of the government's new ethical foreign policy. In the wake of September 11, with the US concerned about their base, the FCO appealed against the ruling. It was not until 2007 that the Chagossians won again at the court of appeal. The FCO appealed once more and now the law lords have agreed to hear the case on the understanding that the FCO will pay all costs, regardless of the result. This is the end of the legal line...