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23 May 2007 |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2086261,00.html |
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The families - ordered from the islands by the British government - packed the court of appeal to hear the ruling, which condemned government tactics preventing their return as unlawful and an abuse of power. The court ruled that thousands of people who were tricked, starved and even terrorised from their homes could return immediately, with the decision likely to draw a line under what is widely seen as one of the most shameful episodes in British colonial history. In 2002 and 2006, the people of the Chagos archipelago - which is between Africa and Indonesia - won court decisions declaring the British actions unlawful. Today, they defeated the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, who had taken the case to the court of appeal. They had not sought to return to Diego Garcia itself, but to other islands in the chain. Speaking amid triumphant scenes outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Richard Gifford, the solicitor for the islanders, said: "It has been held that the ties which bind a people to its homeland are so fundamental that no executive order can lawfully abrogate those rights. "This is now the third time that Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossian community in exile, has proved to the satisfaction of English judges that nothing can separate his compatriots from their homeland. "They now call upon the British government for a new start in this abusive relationship and to proceed with the utmost urgency to restore these loyal British subjects to their homeland." Explaining the court's decision, Lord Justice Sedley said that "while a natural or man-made disaster could warrant the temporary, perhaps even indefinite, removal of a population for its own safety and so rank as an act of governance, the permanent exclusion of an entire population from its homeland for reasons unconnected with their collective well-being cannot have that character and accordingly cannot be lawfully accomplished by use of the prerogative power of governance". After the ruling, a Foreign Office spokesman said ministers were "disappointed" that judges had not granted the department leave to appeal the decision. "We now have one month to lodge an appeal with the House of Lords," he added. "The foreign secretary will consider the judgment carefully and decide if an appeal to the House of Lords will be made. Until this, the matter remains sub judice." In 1966, the British government secretly sold the US a 50-year lease on Diego Garcia, and the residents were expelled from their homes. Most were left to fend for themselves in the slums of Port Louis, Mauritius. Last May, high court judges condemned as "repugnant" the government's decision to "exile a whole population" from the Indian Ocean islands. Government officials claimed the decision had been made on the basis that it was necessary for peace, order and good government. However, Lord Justice Hooper and Mr Justice Cresswell ruled that the interests of the islanders had been ignored, and that orders made under the royal prerogative to prevent their return were irrational and unlawful. Because of the importance of that decision - which included a declaration that orders made under the royal prerogative are not immune from judicial review - the judges gave the government permission for the appeal it lost today. The high court first dealt a blow to the government in 2000 when it overturned measures, introduced in the form of an immigration ordinance in 1971, to keep the Chagossians in exile. The court held that the islanders had a right of return to the group of 65 islands in the Chagos archipelago, although not to Diego Garcia itself. Robin Cook, the then foreign secretary, said there would be no appeal, adding that a "feasibility study" into the possibility of the islanders' return would be conducted. US military authorities expressed fears that any attempt to resettle any of the islands would severely compromise the security of Diego Garcia, which was used to launch bombing missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It was then that the government decided the islanders could not go back after all. See Also: http://www.chagossupport.org.uk/ |
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24 May 2007 |
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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2578474.ece |
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Thousands of British citizens who were evicted from their paradise island home to make way for a giant US air base have won the right to return. In a landmark legal judgment, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Chagos islanders could rebuild a life that they lost in the late 1960s. Yesterday the islanders packed the court to witness their victory, and then called on the Government to pay for about 5,000 of them to return and rebuild the life that they lost 40 years ago. The court overturned an order made by the Government in 2004 banning islanders from returning. Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossian community in exile, said: "I feel very happy not just for myself but all the people who have been separated from their motherland. "It is a special day for justice because even though we are a small people we have shown big people that we have rights." An estimated 2,000 people were forced to leave their homes on the tiny chain of 65 coral islands in the Indian Ocean in the 1960s and 1970s. The islands, halfway between Africa and Indonesia, were first populated by slaves from Madagascar, Mozambique and Senegal who were brought there by French colonists in 1776. Under British rule from the early 19th century, the islanders lived with their own land and houses, speaking a distinctive Creole language in a place they described as "paradise". But most of the inhabitants were forced to move to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a huge new US air base on the main island of Diego Garcia after the British Government leased it to the United States in 1966. Seven years ago the islanders won a High Court ruling that their expulsion was unlawful. But in 2004 an order passed by the British Government banned them from returning. But yesterday the Court of Appeal ruled that the order, which was made under the Royal Prerogative without approval by Parliament, was unlawful and an abuse of power. A spokesman for the UK Chagos Support Association said: "It is enormously encouraging that the court recognises the damage done to democracy if the Government can simply bypass Parliament and enforce its will." Robert Bain, the chairman of the association, said about 5,000 Chagos islanders wanted to return and called on ministers to investigate how to restore their society and provide funds for them to rebuild their lives on the islands. He said: "The Government knows the Chagossians have no independent means to resettle the islands. To accept the islanders' right to return but do nothing about it - as it did between 2000 and 2004 - would be meaningless and immoral." Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing Labour MP and a prominent campaigner for the Chagossians, said: "I hope the Government will now respect this decision, not seek to appeal it to the House of Lords, and not seek to introduce legislation which would deny the islanders their long-sought right of return to the places that they were brutally removed from more than 30 years ago. "This is a day when we should celebrate the long march of the Chagossian people for their right to live in peace on their own islands." The Foreign Office said it was considering an appeal to the House of Lords. A spokesman said: "We are disappointed that our leave to appeal today's decision has been declined. We now have one month to lodge an appeal with the House of Lords. "The Foreign Secretary will consider the judgment carefully and decide if an appeal to the House of Lords will be made. Until this, the matter remains sub judice." Olivier Bancoult, 43: 'I want to take my children home' When his younger sister became ill, four-year-old Olivier Bancoult and his family left the island of Berous Banhos to travel to Mauritius to seek medical treatment for her. She died in hospital and when the family tried to go home, they found they had been evicted by the British government. Mr Bancoult, now 43, who leads the Chagossian community in exile, has lived all his life in Mauritius but wants nothing more than to take his 82-year-old mother and his own three children back to the land of his birth. Mr Bancoult said: "We were in paradise. We had our life and our culture. Everyone had their own house, their garden and a job. "We have not been able to adapt ourselves to Mauritius society because it's not our birthplace. We don't understand why we are excluded from our islands, it is an injustice. "My father passed away and my mother wants to go to spend her last days on Chagos, the land of her birth. "I would like to tell my children about my birthplace and take them all back there."
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