Colonialism zindabad
The inhabitants of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean were removed from the Islands by the British Government because of a deal between them and the United States Government, to make Diego Garcia, one of the islands, a military base. No one asked them if they wanted to move. At the time the British Government pretended they did not exist.
Here is a special report on the Chagossians that John Pilger made, that is a must see. A better quality video is available on Veoh.
Link.
Chagos islanders evicted by the British government in the 1970s today lost their long-running battle to return to the Indian Ocean archipelago.The islanders had previously won the right to return to all islands except Diego Garcia, the main island, where there is a US military base.
The 3-2 ruling today by the law lords overturns the islanders’ victory and is the final stage of a legal battle that started 10 years ago.
Lord Hoffmann ruled the government was entitled to legislate for a colony in the security interests of the United Kingdom.
The US state department had argued that the islands might be useful to terrorists.
Lord Hoffmann said: “Some of these scenarios might be regarded as fanciful speculations, but in the current state of uncertainty the government is entitled to take the concerns of its ally into account.”…..The Foreign Office argued that allowing the Chagossians to return would be a “precarious and costly” operation, and the United States had said that it would also present an unacceptable risk to its base….
….While there were “undeniably unattractive aspects” to what had happened to the islanders in the 1970s, that was no longer what the case was about, Jonathan Crow QC, for the foreign secretary, told the lords. “The Chagossians do not own any territory,” Crow said. “They have no property rights on the islands at all. What is being asserted is a right of mass trespass.”
Mass Trespass. Right.
The judgment of the law lords, is available in full here.
I am so, so tired. How much indignation can one feel in a day? How long can you tolerate a lump in the throat? I am so, so tired of the burden of witnessing.
How convenient for everyone except the affected party.
Hi,
Why is this such a rampant trend? Why do governments and big businesses find it easy to trample upon the homes, livelihoods and way of life of ordinary people? Why aren’t the most vulnerable of people protected? Are we not living in ‘civilised’ times?
A lot of indigenous groups in India are losing their forests, their mountains, their rivers because the land they are living on are profit bringing areas, some are rich in ores, some have rivers, that can be caught in a mega business deal of making dams…
I went to one such place in Orissa, where one of the most ancient tribes, the Dongria Kondh live. I love the indigenous people. They are simple. they are also very vulnerable and shy. Their morality is so scientific, more than that of organised mainstream religions. And yet why is everything that is dear to them and has been nurtured by them through ages being snatched away. Their identity, their language, their culture, their religion, their food, their home, everything is at stake right now. I wrote a piece, which got published in Tehelka, a magazine India: The Last Stand of Niyam Raja (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main38.asp?filename=cr190408thelast.asp).
Ironies of irony, the Supreme Court of India has almost granted permission to the company to break open the sacred site.
Best wishes,
Anjali
The House of Lords seems to have decided on the basis that allowing justice to prevail will be too expensive for the US government to bear. The Indian Supreme Court too has taken such a stand quite often. The moral of this story is that if you commit a wrong and make it expensive to undo it, you’ll get away with it.