As the Argentines rattle the sabre in the South Atlantic - many of us recall again with pride how, in 1982 a large British task force set out on a 7500 mile journey risking life and limb in order to liberate a group of tiny windswept islands in the South Atlantic – a truly heroic chapter in our Imperial decline. Today there is no doubt that, if we could, we would do the same again and defend the rights of an island to call themselves British. Sadly however and as I have discovered our attitude to the rights of the citizens of our remaining island possessions is not entirely consistent and in another faraway ocean a rather different tale is told.
A few years ago, I picked up and read a copy of Ben Fogle’s book, ‘The Teatime Islands’. The book is a light hearted, engaging and personal account of Fogle’s visits to the last flag-flying outposts of what remains of the British Empire – largely a collection of islands too remote or strategically vital to be allowed to go it alone. It was Fogle in this book who alerted me to one of the most shameful episodes in our retreat from Empire – the plight of the Chagos islanders exiled from their homeland by the British over 40 years ago. The shame is compounded because rather than the join the list of post colonial apologies made or “wrongs righted” – our government continues to perpetrate a profound injustice and use the might of the British state’s legal armoury to crush the right of a people to live in their homeland. In its treatment of the citizens of this island paradise, New Labour has lost the right to lecture the world about the ‘rule of law’ and respect for property rights.
The plight of the Chagos islanders which has been the subject of legal wrangling for forty years is now reaching its final stages at the European Court of Human Rights. Harold Wilson’s government in the late sixties drove the entire population of Chagos islands into exile and impoverishment. The present Labour government, which once talked of an ‘ethical foreign policy’, stands by this injustice today.
The high politics of the Chagos affair is extraordinary. In order to prevent the geographically important Chagos islands (a group of 55 islands about 2,000 miles east of Africa and west of Singapore) from falling into the hands of Mauritius on independence, the British government in 1964 created the “British Indian Ocean Territory” the only colony to be formed since decolonization began. The islands were given a flag, a detachment of Royal Marines to defend them and even produced a few stamps.
In the midst of the Cold War, the United States, however, decided it wanted a military base in the Indian Ocean to keep the USSR and China from threatening the Arabian Gulf. Suddenly the Chagos archipelago was more than just an insignificant speck on the map. The US’ first choice location for a new base was the uninhabited Aldabra Atoll, but Harold Wilson feared antagonism from ecologists, as Aldabra is home to a rare breed of turtle! So, he offered Diego Garcia instead, even though it was inhabited. Harold Wilson’s government agreed in secret to loan Diego Garcia (the largest of the islands) to the U.S military for fifty years (with a twenty year extension option) in exchange for a discount on Polaris nuclear submarines. It was agreed that the islands would be ‘fully swept’ – in layman’s language – ‘emptied’. The deal was not disclosed to the United Nations, the US senate, or Parliament. Diego Garcia of course recently hit the headlines again as our Government was forced to admit that this last corner of Empire was one of the preferred stopover destinations for the notorious CIA rendition flights.
Despite the fact that many Chagossians were fifth generation inhabitants, the Foreign Office claimed that they were only itinerant labourers with no right of abode on the islands. The islanders were deported, often tricked and intimidated into leaving on temporary excursions as their homes were destroyed. They were loaded onto boats, allowed to take only one bag with them, and deposited in Mauritius and the Seychelles where a life of poverty awaited them – many also ended up in Crawley simply waiting to return home. Some committed suicide, their plight was shrouded in secrecy – a duped, dumped and ruined people. In 1973 the British government transferred £650,000 to the Mauritian government for the aid of the Chagossian exiles. Some of this money was intended to be used to resettle the exiles on farm land but there was much disagreement and the exiles were so desperate for money that the resettlement plan was abandoned and, eventually, in 1978 the money was disbursed. Although this money helped some of the exiles to obtain better housing, most of them were left no better off. It was not until 1982 that any more money came from the British government. A sum of £4 million was allotted as a ‘full and final settlement’ – but in order to obtain a share the exiles had to sign away their right to ever return to their homeland.
In 1997 the newly elected Labour government made great play of promising an ‘ethical foreign policy’ and in 2000 the High Court ruled that the exile was unlawful, a verdict which the then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook accepted. However, Diego Garcia assumed renewed strategic importance after 9/11 and the government tried to block returning islanders through the use of two executive orders or royal “decrees”. In 2006 the Court of Appeal over-ruled the use of the orders describing their use as “repugnant”, and in 2007 the Court once again affirmed the right of islanders to return home. The following year the government successfully (and sadly) over-turned the verdict in the House of Lords by a majority of just one. The case is now under consideration at the European Court of Human Rights.
Meanwhile the islanders face opposition from another direction. The archipelago is an outstanding example of marine bio-diversity with over a million square miles of pristine wildlife. In 1992 the Chagos Conservation Trust was launched to protect the archipelago from commercial exploitation. They stress the need for the islands to remain “uninhabited”, and their proposal for a ‘marine protection zone’ has unsurprisingly (!) been warmly received by the government. If the protection zone is agreed before Strasbourg reach a verdict, then any favourable verdict could lead to another legal row. While the islands are of course an outstanding natural habitat that need protection, the human rights of native inhabitants have to be accommodated – the Government must not be allowed to use conservation as a fig leaf for the abuse of human rights.
The case of the Chagos islanders remains a shameful blight on the UK’s reputation. In 2009 Gordon Brown argued that world peace depends upon “freedom, democracy and fairness.” These are virtues that all of us can agree with, yet in Chagos – Labour has failed to live-up to them. What is more, it is hypocritical of Britain to lecture on freedom and democracy while this display of arrogance continues. As David Cameron promises our country change, a new Conservative government could make a profoundly important gesture of change and facilitate the return of the Chagos islanders to their homeland. For a new Conservative government to over-turn this injustice would be a clear and welcome break from Labour’s forty years of deceit on this issue and would send a message that we take the rights of humans in Britain’s care as seriously as the rights of turtles – this would truly be a change that we can believe in.
Marcus Booth FRSA is Vice Chair of the UK Chagos Support Association
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Thanks for writing on this, while I don’t know much about this it’s always saddening when people are removed from their homes, and in such a decitful way.