On Wednesday the Blair government lost a case in the Court of Appeal. If it is not successfully appealed in the House of Lords or Supreme Court, it will enable the Chagos Islanders to return to their homeland. The best know of the islands is Diego Garcia and it was to build that US air base, sometimes called the Indian Ocean Guantanamo, that the islanders were illegally evicted.
The islanders will not be able to go to Diego Garcia itself, in the same way the Cubans cannot enter Gitmo, but they should be able to return to the other islands.
The origins of the story go back to the Cold War and a previous Labour Government. This is how the sorry tale unfolded as told by a UK group supporting the islanders.
In the midst of the Cold War, the United States 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, the then British Prime Minister, 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.
In 1966 Britain secretly leased Diego Garcia to the US for 50 years, with the option of an extension. This was done in exchange for a discount of millions of dollars on Polaris nuclear submarines – a way of concealing the payment. The US pays rent of one dollar per year. The deal was not disclosed to the US Congress, the British Parliament, or the United Nations.
The islands had been part of Mauritius but to avoid handing them over when it became independent, the “British Indian Ocean Territory” was created.
Not only did Britain have to effectively steal the islands, it also had to get rid of the people. The US took Diego Garcia only on condition that all the Chagos islands were uninhabited – the Chagossians had to go. To achieve this, Britain simply pretended that there were no Chagossians, and conspired to make sure their unlawful removal went unnoticed.
The Foreign Office invented a false history, claiming that the Chagossians were only itinerant labourers with no right of abode on the islands. This is a lie and they knew it – many Chagossians were fifth generation islanders. It is on record that one senior Foreign Office official described the islanders, in a letter, as ‘mere Tarzans and Men Fridays’. The US and the UK succeeded in keeping secret what had happened for many years. A small token force of British naval personnel is kept on Diego Garcia, which is now the US’ largest overseas military base.
The islanders were brutally evicted and forbidden to return. In November 2000, helped by papers released under the “30 year rule” governing secret documents, those born on the islands and their children regained the right to return to resettle on all the islands. The Government however declared that this must exclude Diego Garcia because of the treaty obligations to the USA.
The exile’s site goes on to describe a typical slight of hand under Blair where controversial decisions are made on “good days to bury bad news”.
On Thursday 10 June 2004 (better known as “Super Thursday” – local election day) royal orders were suddenly passed banning anyone from setting foot on the Chagos islands. The government made sure no one knew about this shocking move until it was too late. Not only did they pass the laws secretly as “orders in council” – requiring no prior consultation or debate – they also buried the move on a day when the news was dominated by the elections. The orders amounted to a new act of exile, overruling the court victory in 2000. This blow was followed a few days later by the refusal of permission to appeal a High Court ruling from October 2003 which denied the Chagossians compensation.
On Thursday 11 May 2006 the High Court overturned the orders in council of 2004, giving the Chagossians back the right of return that they won in 2000. The islanders’ solicitor Richard Gifford said: “The British Government has been defeated in its attempt to abolish the right of abode of the islanders after first deporting them in secret 30 years ago…This is the fourth time in five years that Her Majesty’s judges have deplored the treatment inflicted upon this fragile community.”
The reason that the government gave for being able to make the orders was that, because it involved a treaty, the Royal Perogative could be used. These are powers, in theory in the name of the Monarch, that ministers have been given to make decisions without Parliament. Ironically these powers were under review before the 2004 decision in order to strengthen the power of Parliament to hold the Government to account. The note attached to this Parliamentary Press Release gives a fuller explanation of these powers and how they are used. Increasingly though the use of the power has also been challenged in the courts. This is now called Judicial Review and no longer requires a “Petition of Right” to be able to bring a case. This was a release for the courts to consider a case. The agreement was indicated by signing with the rather grand sounding “Let Right be done”.
Today’s Court of Appeal decision upholds the High Court decision of 2006. The again rejected the Governments contention that the actions of ministers under the Royal Perogative under the guise of security and foreign relations considerations could not be challenged.
Lord Justice Sedley, giving the lead ruling, said the government’s use of the Order in Council under the Royal Prerogative – powers that allow action without reference to Parliament – was an unlawful way of preventing the islanders from returning.
Lord Justice Waller said the decision had been taken by a government minister “acting without any constraint”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6683205.stm