STATEMENT BY CRG CONCERNING DECISION OF THE COURT OF APPEAL DATED 23 MAY 2014.
Chagossians welcome the important decision of the Court of Appeal (that the Wikileaks cable, in which the Commissioner for British Indian Ocean Territory revealed the true purpose of David Miliband’s Marine Protected Area around the Chagos islands to be to prevent resettlement by us of our islands) should have been admitted in evidence. It clearly showed that the UK was presenting the MPA to the USA as a means of preventing us from resettling our ancestral homeland.
We condemn the last British government for the underhand way in which our dignity as an uprooted people has been further insulted.
What we do not understand is that, having wrongly excluded this important evidence from the Court, it has now been decided that this exclusion “makes no difference” to the issue of this improper purpose. It seems that the whole world now knows what was said between officials in secret, but the Courts are alone in disregarding the clear message of deception which it reveals.
It should be recalled that the history of our exile is marked by serious acts of deception practised in order to disguise what is a clear breach of our rights of self determination. This history includes:
What we do not understand is that, having wrongly excluded this important evidence from the Court, it has now been decided that this exclusion “makes no difference” to the issue of this improper purpose. It seems that the whole world now knows what was said between officials in secret, but the Courts are alone in disregarding the clear message of deception which it reveals.
It should be recalled that the history of our exile is marked by serious acts of deception practised in order to disguise what is a clear breach of our rights of self determination. This history includes:
1. The deception of the UN in 1965, when the Colonial Office misrepresented our people as a transient population, despite their duty top help us towards self- determination, in order to evade fundamental rights and secretly deport our people into exile.
2. The secret documents that required us to surrender our right of return, which were not explained or translated to us, when small amounts of compensation were paid in 1982
3. The now revealed interference by officials with the feasibility Study in 2000-2002 which Robin Cook promised as a means of providing for our return.
4. The secret abolition of our Right of return, by Jack Straw, in 2004, when the false conclusions of the feasibility Study were used to justify this attack on our identity as an island people.
Chagossians will never give up our fundamental right to return to our homeland. We welcome the decision of the Coalition Government to make a second study of the Return of the population, provided that this is a sincere effort to achieve real resettlement. We deplore the last Government’s tricks to cheat us of our return, after the High Court declared our Exile to be illegal in 2000.
2. The secret documents that required us to surrender our right of return, which were not explained or translated to us, when small amounts of compensation were paid in 1982
3. The now revealed interference by officials with the feasibility Study in 2000-2002 which Robin Cook promised as a means of providing for our return.
4. The secret abolition of our Right of return, by Jack Straw, in 2004, when the false conclusions of the feasibility Study were used to justify this attack on our identity as an island people.
Chagossians will never give up our fundamental right to return to our homeland. We welcome the decision of the Coalition Government to make a second study of the Return of the population, provided that this is a sincere effort to achieve real resettlement. We deplore the last Government’s tricks to cheat us of our return, after the High Court declared our Exile to be illegal in 2000.
Whilst we are giving consideration, with our legal team in the UK to a possible appeal against other aspects of this judgment, we call upon the Foreign Secretary to waste no further time, to restore our Right of return and prepare concrete proposals to restore our people to their homeland islands. Chagossians will resume our stewardship of these beautiful islands and respect the wonderful natural environment that it is our right to enjoy.
The CRG would like to reiterate that the Chagossians are strongly convinced that justice will ultimately prevail.
Olivier Bancoult, OSK
Chairman & Leader
Chagos Refugees Group
Click on the following for related stories
Chairman & Leader
Chagos Refugees Group
Click on the following for related stories
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