Britain blocks islanders ever going home (Diego Garcia/Chagos Islands) [View All]

[magellan]

Britain blocks islanders ever going home

By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:08am GMT 05/02/2007

More than three decades after British islands in the Indian Ocean were depopulated to make way for an American base, the Government will ask the courts today to ban the inhabitants from ever returning home.

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At America's request, Britain cleared the islands of all 2,000 of their inhabitants – referred to by one Foreign Office diplomat as "Tarzans and Men Fridays" – between 1966 and 1973. After this, a US naval and air base was constructed on the biggest island, Diego Garcia.

The High Court has twice given the islanders, known as the Chagossians, the right to return and Britain had initially accepted the ruling when the islanders won their first case in 2000.

But today the Government will try and overturn a second ruling in the Court of Appeal.

"The evidence points to this being done largely at Washington's request," said Clive Baldwin, from the Minority Rights Group, which is campaigning for the Chagossians. "After September 11 and with the island being used as a base for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military value of Diego Garcia has increased."

more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/05/wchagos05.xml