Chagos Islanders lose right of return

Chagos Islanders lose right of return

www.--.com

Chagos islanders expelled by the British government in the 1970s today lost their long-running battle to return to the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The islanders had previously won the right to return to all islands other than Diego Garcia, the main island, which houses a secretive US military base.

The 3-2 ruling today by the law lords overturns the islanders' victory and is the final stage of a legal battle that began 10 years ago.

Lord Hoffman ruled the government was entitled to legislate for a colony in the security interests of the United Kingdom.

(visit the link for the full news article)

.....The US state department had argued that the islands might be useful to terrorists.

Lord Hoffman said: "Some of these scenarios might be regarded as fanciful speculations, but in the current state of uncertainty the government is entitled to take the concerns of its ally into account."

He rejected the argument by the Chagossians' lawyers that the government did not have the power to remove their right of abode in what is now known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). "The law gives it and the law may take it away," he said.

Olivier Bancoult, the evicted islander who put his name to the legal bid when it started in 1998, said after the ruling: "We are deeply disappointed but of course we fight on. We are consulting our legal team to see what we can do."
This is an utter disgrace-trully apalling decision that is hard to believe even occured and was so aggresively pursued by the UK government who is so quick to criticise others.


www.--.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

For anyone interested in taking a peek at the "secretive US Base on Diego Garcia", pop open Google Earth and see:

7°17'60.00"S Latitude
72°24'0.00"E Longitude


Also, information on Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org...

Sounds like popular Rendition site. The big unmarked gray jets lining the runway look like they'd be able to hold a bunch of bad guys (or not-so-bad guys in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the rendition program's record has shown).

[edit on 22-10-2008 by ChrisR]

reply to post by ChrisR


Nice-good idea.