One of the worst atrocities of the British Empire occurred well within my own lifetime – the removal of an entire people, the Chagossians, from their homeland. Uprooted and deposited across the seas hundreds of miles away, many died from the physical and psychological effects of this crime against humanity. The thing is, it is still happening. The survivors have clung together as a community, and the British government are still actively preventing their return to their homeland – all to make way for an American military base on Diego Garcia. There is no reason other than simple Imperialism for America to maintain a military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Probably the most breathtaking piece of hypocrisy in modern history was when New Labour proudly announced that they had demarcated the waters around the Chagos Islands as the world’s first total marine conservation area – purely so they could make it impossible for the fishing based island community ever to return.
It is of course another example of the unparalleled talent for hypocrisy of the British state that the same politicians who declare their willingness to fight and die for the right of self-determination of the Falkland Islanders, will defend the deportation of the Chagos Islanders and their continued exclusion from their own islands. Again I would stress that Labour have been at least as guilty as Tories. The entire British state is complicit in this atrocity.
I would urge everybody who reads this immediately to use this link to send a message to your MP. I should welcome feedback through the comments section on any responses received.
Rose, I had to make various attempts before the page found my MP. It isn’t very well thought out. It couldn’t find my address. What eventually worked was to put in an address on a nearby road which has quite a few houses on it. I just used “1” as the house number. The address used to find your MP doesn’t matter because the next step gets you to fill in your address anyway.
If it won’t work copy the petition text and then visit the following link, which finds your MP from your postcode…
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
Dear Clark – Thanks for the tip – it worked! There sure is more than one way to skin a cat. xx
Compared to the outright atrocities, The British Government has inflicted over the last 100 years and continues to inflict on Millions of people across the World and in the UK, this is extremely mild.
However, I am all in favour, if the current or future British Government actually has any independent power, that it throws the Americans out of their airbase and torture centre in Diego Garcia, and does as much as it possibly can to encourage the island people ethnically cleansed to return, and live their lives as they so wish. If they want to use the airstrip, that the Americans built, for small scale tourism – diving – etc, then that should be up to them. Alternatively if they just want a subsistence existence on fishing and coconuts, that too should be their choice…
But in the real world, what is far more likely to happen, is the continued destruction of the people, and the eco-system of the entire planet, by the lunatics in control, by multiple different methods including nuclear world war.
No one in a position of power is doing anything to stop the train wreck of the planet, except to lie and cheer it on whilst committing the kind of mass genocide that Thomas Malthus could only dream about, yet failed to understand.
Tony
My MP Liam Byrne would want a fairly large brown envelope before lifting his millionaire fingers to help anyone. Are there any asian votes in it for him?
Tried to sign the petition, even with Clarks tricks it did not work, it has been sabotaged I fear.
I have never come across a worst organised petition.
John Ward, your past reminiscence might bring back the sunshine you felt on your back, but it does nothing for those yearning to visit the graves of their ancestors or seek to live in their island atoll. You have been part of an Apartheid conspiracy.
Courtenay
Thank you. It was not clear from your original post that the case you were involved on happened in a Caribbean colony (rather than an independent country).
Nevermind, if you have a JavaScript blocker ensure it’s off. Then pick any address in the same constituency as you. Start typing that address, suggestions should appear beneath. When you see one you know to be in the same constituency, click on it, and the page should find your MP. Click on your MP’s name and then boxes should appear for you to fill in your address.
I think it’s some Google service that the campaign have chosen for that page. It’s rubbish.
Nevermind, regarding the petition, I made the mistake of entering my postcode and wondering why nothing happened except it went into a spin. It is why I made this comment about the address. Try again.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/03/end-this-british-atrocity/#comment-581129
As to John Ward being part of an apartheid conspiracy it may be true but it is not his fault. He worked as a surveyor and probably knew nothing of what had happened to the Chagos islanders when he was posted there. I served my apprenticeship at a Royal Ordnance Factory but have no idea whether parts I made contributed to people’s deaths. I hope not. But I don’t know.
Rose, see Clark’s comments regarding signing. It took me a while. Persevere because it is important. 🙂
Nevermind, typing the street name seems to be the critical bit. The index it’s working from is world-wide(!), so pick a fairly unusual street name from your constituency to help narrow down the suggestions.
OOps! I see Rose did persevere. Apols.
I’ve contacted the campaign site asking them to address the problem. Here’s their contact page…
https://dogooder.co/contact/
I wrote to my MP – Caroline Lucas – the last time you raised this issue and it seems she is already quite involved in trying to resolve the matter in a way satisfactory to the Islanders, so I will not bother her again.
I agree that evicting the Islanders was a shameful act on the part of the British Government and that it urgently needs correcting.
@Rose 2 Mar, 2016 – 9:35 am
Dear Clark – Thanks for the tip – it worked! There sure is more than one way to skin a cat. xx
Rose, can you please send me your address, so I can send the RSPCA round to investigate your activities re felines?
@john ward 2 Mar, 2016 – 6:52 am
I echo John Goss’ comment about your welcome input on the subject: do you have photos of the village? If so, I’m sure the activists and campaigners would welcome copies, and they would also, I’m sure, like to contact you regarding your time on the island.
I shall try to find who their representatives are in the UK, and let you know via this blog.
I’ve signed (thanks to advice here on how to operate the strange petition) and I’ve put the petition up on another website.
Finally got it done, Thanks Clark, it reacted completely different this time. I also shared on Fartbook, who knows whether any of the pixies on there might want to join in.
its got to be the most abused case in on the FCO’s books, the issue that make even them squirm.
I can’t see much difference between China’s annexation of the Spratley islands and the annexation of the Chagos and Diego Garcia.
John Ward, re my previous comment, here is the Chagos Support email: [email protected]
John Ward, for some reason above email doesn’t work. it comes out red in the ‘to’ box. Here is an alternative email; I have sent your comment and link to the blog to them already:
[email protected]
Paul Barbara : for some reason above email doesn’t work. it comes out red in the ‘to’ box.
Some email programmes, Thunderbird for example, display an email address in red font if it isn’t in its address book. It’s an alert in case you’ve spelled it wrong. There’s probably nothing thing wrong with the email address.
John Ward at 6.52 am on 2 March – Your post added a valuablehistoric persepective to this saga. I’ve been campaigning for (belated) justice for the Chagossians for many years and would be grateful if we could exchange notes on various aspects of this depressing story. My email is biodiplomacyatyahoo.co.uk; or mobile zerosevenfoureightfourtwosixeighteighteightsix.
Court decisions on the two major outstanding cases – on the Right of Return and on the Chagos MPA – are now expected before opr just after Easter. For the details of the former case, see https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2015-0021.html
@ ————·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node
2 Mar, 2016 – 4:03 pm
Thanks, but I’ve now cracked it. The email address on the ‘Chagos Support’ page is incorrect, if you copy it. Maybe if you click on it, it might work, but they have left out ‘.uk’ at the end; I have now contacted them.
Done, used the wtriettothem website as couldn’t get given link to work.
The depopulation of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago, that is, the compelled expulsion of the inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia and the other islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) by the United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began in 1968 and concluded on 27 April 1973 with the evacuation of Peros Banhos atoll.[1][2] The people, known at the time as the Ilois,[3] are today known as Chagos Islanders or Chagossians.[4]
Some Chagossians and human rights advocates have said that the Chagossian right of occupation was violated by the British Foreign Office as a result of the 1966 agreement[5] between the British and American governments to provide an unpopulated island for a U.S. military base, and that additional compensation[6] and a right of return[7] be provided.
Legal action to claim compensation and the right of abode in the Chagos began in April 1973 when 280 islanders, represented by a Mauritian attorney, petitioned the government of Mauritius to distribute the £650,000 compensation provided in 1972 by the British government to the Mauritian government for distribution. It was not distributed until 1977.[8] Various petitions and lawsuits have been ongoing since that time. The British government has consistently denied any illegalities in the expulsion.
A Displaced and Forgotten People
The Chagos archipelago is situated in the Indian Ocean, mid-way between India and Africa. Some 2,000 people lived on the archipelago, the majority on the largest island of Diego Garcia. Their ancestry on the islands went back to the 18th century.
During
the 1960s and 1970s British governments, both Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos, a British colonial dependency, so that Diego Garcia, the main island of their homeland, could be given to the United States as the site for a military base. This act of mass kidnapping by the British government was carried out in high secrecy, along with the conspiracy that preceded it. The last islander was deported in 1973. The ‘deportation or forcible transfer of a population…a crime against humanity’, is according to the words of Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
These displaced people still in Mauritius and the Seychelles continue to suffer in poverty to this day and continue to exist in sadness, longing to return to their homeland. Many have died in misery, living in the hope of going home.
In 2002, travelling with their new British passports, many of the Chagossians began to arrive in Britain, to bring their campaign to London and to escape the poverty of Mauritius. All of them wanted to return to the Chagos Islands rather than be in England. It is estimated that more than 2,000 Chagossians now live on the margins of UK society mainly in the town of Crawley, with a smaller community in Manchester. In both places they struggle to reconstruct their lives.
Meanwhile dozens of jobs on Diego Garcia are being advertised in the Philippines, including posts for electricians, cashiers, mechanics, stock clerks, janitors, welders, firefighters, engineers and massage therapists. There have been no reports of these jobs being advertised in Mauritius, the Seychelles or the UK, where most of the Chagossian community live. We can’t help but wonder why.they have not been given priority for these positions in their own land. Since being illegally evicted, very few Chagossians have been able to get jobs at the foreign base in their homeland despite many trying.
The hope is that the islanders be allowed to return to their islands as soon as possible before more of them die in a British imposed exile, never to see their homeland again.
Thank you Sabrina Jean for the additional information and the website link on your name.
You are correct Nevermind. I was part of a conspiracy to which I contributed in some small way. I regret that, but my point was to lend some small evidence that the Chagossians were PERMANENT, and the hypocracy of the British government in its treatment of them compared to the Falklanders.
John Ward – what a brilliant post at 0652, thanks for sharing that.
Your Welcome the website is Chagosrefugeesgroup.org
Hi John Ward
Do you have any picture of the island please and can I have your contact details
Thanks
Sabrina
Mods, could you please pass on Sabrina’s request, in case John Ward hasn’t seen it?
Fairly sympathetic but non-committal response from Ian Murray ‘I will continue to follow this important issue.’