The UK Chagos Support Association

The Independent reports that Foreign Office officials will be cross-examined on the content of a US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks, as part of the Chagossians’ application for a judicial review of the Chagos Marine Protected Area.

The cable, one of many leaked by Wikileaks in 2010, summarised a conversation in which BIOT Commissioner Colin Roberts claimed that “establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the (Chagos) archipelago’s former residents”. Roberts also reportedly said that the Foreign Office had no regrets about the eviction of the islanders.

Our patron Ben Fogle wrote angrily at the time about having been duped into supporting a marine reserve created under ‘false pretences’, as a way to keep the Chagos islanders from returning to their rightful home.

Answering questions about this might be uncomfortable for the government, but we believe it will be good for transparency.

We’re a few days late with this but there’s a great profile of our patron Philippa Gregory in Monday’s Independent, in which she talks extensively about getting involved in the Chagos campaign, and how the treatment of the islanders seems like something from one of her historical novels.

Philippa says: “When it comes to the treatment of the Chagossians, it’s as if the democratic revolution never happened. It is totally tyrannical. I cannot understand why successive British governments would act against their own subjects so consistently over so many years using so many underhand techniques.”

Read the full article here. There’s also a letter from David Snoxell, coordinator of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Chagos, in the following day’s paper.

There’s been some great coverage in the Guardian yesterday and today of the Chagos Regagné conference in London.

Today’s piece by Fred Pearce in the Environment Blog focuses on disagreements between environmentalists on allowing people back to Chagos. This, unfortunately, has become a key issue because of the way some conservationists have supported the introduction of the Chagos marine reserve while remaining quite about how it trampled on the islanders’ rights.

Two articles yesterday by Sam Jones provide a general overview of the topic and a report from the event, highlighting how the islanders remain in exile while a major military base occupies the main island, Diego Garcia.

Our patron Ben Fogle said before yesterday’s event:
“I am an optimist but I’m also a realist and I don’t see why we can’t come up with a workable, sustainable solution… Now is the time to do this.”

Our co-patron Ben Fogle had a letter in the Guardian yesterday responding to documents released by Wikileaks revealing the FCO’s motivation for establishing a marine reserve in Chagos. Here’s the text of his letter:

Forty years ago, thousands of people were forcibly and illegally removed from their homeland, the British Indian Ocean Territory, to make way for Diego Garcia, a US military base. The expulsion has been described by some as UK foreign policy’s darkest day. Since then the islanders have fought for the right to go home. They won it from the high court, but the privy council took it away. It now seems, from US information released by WikiLeaks (Foreign Office accused of misleading public over expelled ‘Man Fridays’, 4 December), that the Foreign Office has no regrets over its illegal action, and has been planning to destroy the islanders’ campaign by making their former home a marine sanctuary, in which no one would be allowed to live.

As a long-term advocate of conservation, I am horrified that the UK government has used this to keep the islanders from returning to their rightful home, and that I was duped into supporting the creation of the marine sanctuary under false pretences. According to the leaked documents, Colin Roberts, the FCO’s director of overseas territories, told the US that there would be no “Man Fridays” on the islands and said: “We do not regret the removal of the population.” The FCO described the all-party parliamentary group campaigning for the Chagos people’s right to return as a “persistent” but relatively non-influential group. I now regret my support of the marine sanctuary and look forward to joining the islanders in their campaign to return home.

In Radio 4′s From Our Own Correspondent programme this week, the BBC’s Lorraine Mallender speaks to Chagos islanders in Mauritius. Hundreds of people were dumped on the docks of Mauritius in the 60s with no help from the British or Mauritian authorities, and many still live there. They share their memories of the islands and their hopes for a return. Follow the link above and jump to 17:15 to listen (NB the audio may not work outside the UK and is only available online for a limited time).