Sounds a Fair deal to Me...Cash strapped Britain, imprisoned thousand of Islanders, Gassed all their dogs. Expelled them, all so they could get $11,000,000 off of Polaris Nuclear warheads. Full Story Below. The Struggle Between 1967 and 1971 the indigenous population of Diago Garcia, then part of the British territory of Mauritius, were forcibly exiled by the British government in a shocking abuse of human rights. In a deal with the US the British government offered Diego Garcia to the US military on a 50 year lease in exchange for an $11 million subsidy on Polaris nuclear warheads. The deal was done behind closed doors. In 1965 Mauritius was granted independence but the Chagos islands were separated and renamed the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Over the next few years vital supplies of food and medicine were prevented from reaching the islands in an attempt to encourage the islanders to leave, and in 1971 those remaining were loaded onto a boat, SS Nordver, and transported to the Seychelles where they were kept in prison cells before certain islanders were transported to St. Lucia in Mauritius where they were abandoned. In November 2000 a landmark decision at the High Court ruled that the expulsion of the Chagos islanders was unlawful. Due to the ruling, the order in council that had led to the expulsion of the inhabitants was immediately amended, conferring on those born on the islands, and their children, the right to return home. A feasibility study into resettlement was carried out by the UK Foreign Office in 2002 but suddenly on Thursday 10 June 2004 an Order in Council was made preventing anyone from setting foot on the Chagos islands. This in effect over-ruled the High Court decision. On Thursday 11 May 2006 the High Court overturned the 2004 Order, giving the Chagossians back the right of return that they won in 2000. The islanders’ solicitor Richard Gifford said: “The British Government has been defeated in its attempt to abolish the right of abode of the islanders after first deporting them in secret 30 years ago…This is the fourth time in five years that Her Majesty’s Judges have deplored the treatment inflicted upon this fragile community.” The government was defeated again at the Court of Appeal but had their appeal upheld by the House of Lords in 2008 by a majority of 3 to 2. The islanders now await the final decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. chagossupport.org.uk/category/ben-fogle
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 09:57:40 +0000
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