Britain: New excuses to deny Chagos refugees justice

July 19, 2008
Issue 

The British government has lost three court cases in its own judicial system over the right of the original inhabitants of the Mauritian islands of Chagos (which includes the strategic US military base on Diego Garcia), to return. The case is currently before the House of Lords Judicial Committee — the court of ultimate appeal.

The inhabitants of the Chagos islands were forcibly removed by the British government between 1965 and 1973 in order to make way for the US military base.

According to attorney-at-law Robin Mardemootoo, who represented the Chagos Refugee Group at the hearing. last week, the Mauritian revolutionary socialist organisation Lalit was referred to during one hour of pleadings by the British government's legal representative Jonathan Crow.

The main point of this line of argument by the British government in relation to Lalit is to attempt to claim that any return of the Chagossians to their native islands would pose a security risk, because the Chagossians had worked with Lalit — which has campaigned against the US military base at Diego Garcia.

In a July 11 interview with L'Express, the biggest newspaper in Mauritius, Mardemootoo commented on the case and the use of Lalit as a defence.

Mardemootoo stated that "we must understand the context of the appeal before the House of Lords. You must realise that the Chagossians have always had unanimous judgments in their favour regarding the return to the islands, whether in 2000, 2006 or 2007 before the Court of Appeal. So they went to the House of Lords with a lot of confidence about their right to return."

"The British government was most upset by the rulings before the High Court and Court of Appeal", he explained, "because the rulings innovated by declaring that Orders in Council are indeed 'reviewable'. The British government had to contend not only with the Chagos islanders but also with a constitutional issue, of prime importance to them."

Mardemootoo explained that "the British government has always been required by the Americans to keep the islands closed. This is how both parties approached the appeal."

Asked about how resettlement on the islands of Peros Banhos and Salomon could present a threat to Diego Garcia, which is located dozens of miles away, as argued by the British government, Mardemootoo stated: "What scares them is the fact that the islanders had participated in meetings and forums with LALIT, the Mauritian political party. According to the British government, LALIT is known, at least in Mauritius, to be anti-American and anti-military base.

"One of LALIT's objectives was to organise an international flotilla that would go to Diego Garcia and prompt a confrontation with the Americans."

L'Express journalist Nicolas Rainer responded by asking: "You're telling me the Chagos Refugee Group's occasional affiliation with a left-wing political party that threatened to send a few boats to Diego Garcia poses a risk to the biggest American military base outside of the US?"

Mardemootoo responded: "As ridiculous as it sounds, it does according to the British government. We were told about LALIT for about an hour, about their agenda and how Chagossians would be a threat for the peace and order of Diego Garcia because of their alleged link to LALIT."

Lalit responded in a statement by noting that "the UK and the US are deeply concerned about the anti-bases movement. It harms their imperial reign."

The statement noted that "our process of working towards building a 'flotilla' to go to Diego Garcia also worried them, it would seem. The process of building this flotilla was supported in Mauritius by the quasi-totality of the trade union and social organisations in the country ... And this was voted in the general assembly of the worldwide anti-war movement, on a proposal of the anti-bases movement."

Lalit reiterated: "We believe that Chagossians have the right to return to the entirety of Chagos, including Diego Garcia ... We believe that Chagossians and Mauritius have the right to live in a peaceful land without any weapons of war on it ..."

[First published a http://www.lalitmauritius.org.]

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