Let my people go!
Written by Editor Monday, 13 December 2010 11:05
Britain must grant the Chagossians the right to return to their islands
November 3 - Chagossians Day in Mauritius. A handful of Chagossians demonstrated across the road opposite the Houses of Parliament,
the world symbol of Democracy. The Chagossians have been deprived of their homeland by this very Parliament, now deaf to th
eir plaints.
Jameel Peerally’s ‘Chagossians, Orphans of the World’
The shame of Britain (as opposed to the Pride of Britain)
Chagossians (dispossessed of their home islands by Britain) living in squalor while British politicians unashamedly cosset themselves in cotton wool.
Scarcely a week after its launch at the Musée de la Photographie in Port Louis, photographer Jameel Peerally’s book “Chagossians, Orphans of the World”, which has the advantage to be in English and in French, has attracted the attention of many readers abroad – specially from European countries such as France, Norway, Spain and Italy. On the local market, the book is on sale at Rs 750.
Exclusively in black and white, the photographic book of Jameel Peerally displays some 70 unpublished photos of Chagossians living their “forced exile” in Mauritius, Seychelles and Agalega.
The first pages of the book research the history and the whole issue of the Chagossian dilemma. For this part the publisher is indebted to Joël Toussaint, a former journalist who has a wide knowledge of the issue related to the uprooting of the Chagossians from their homeland.
The book launch was attended by a host of activists and sympathizers among whom the former President of the Republic, Cassam Uteem, the chief guest Father Gérard Mongélard, the leader of Groupe Réfugiés Chagos, Olivier Bancoult, and the other historic leader of the Chagossian cause, Fernand Mandarin. Tristan Bréville was the master of ceremony.
‘Orphans of the World’ is a photographic testimony and environmental portrait of the last of the Chagossians.
The Chagossian issue
“THE CHAGOSSIANS ARE originally from a group of 65 islands known as the Chagos Archipelago. A tropical paradise situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, namely Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos and Solomon. Five generations of Chagossians had been living on these islands since the mid-1780s when French colonists from Mauritius Island established a coconut plantation on Diego Garcia.
When Mauritius negotiated its independence in the late 1960s, the British government obtained the use of and access to the Archipelago. Diego Garcia was leased to the United States and now serves as a major military base. The people living on the archipelago were forcefully removed and deported to Mauritius Island and some to the Seychelles. They have not been allowed to go back to their homeland.
Forced into exile some forty years ago, they have been suffering much hardship while living in the utmost poverty on Mauritius Island.”
(Extract back cover presentation)
DODO (Mauritius)
Chagossians, the entertainers
The Chagossians group Jalsa des Iles has become favourite entertainers within the UK Mauritian community.
We have seen them recently peforming at the Rum festival, the Creoles Festival, and the World Travel Market, all in London.
The Jalsa des Iles identify themselves totally with the UK Mauritian community.
They perform what they call the sega typique and their musical insturments are the Ravannes, Maravanne, and Triangle, essential for the traditional Mauritian sega folk song and dance.
The Jalsa des Iles is led by lead singer Dorian Delia and his wife Marie-Joyce.
On November 13 they held their own Divali Celebrations at the Jasmin Hall in Tooting, south London.
See Pictures on the left.
Mrs Savina Choolun-Boodhoo of Raj Law Solicitors was invited to address the assistance on the meaning of Diwali, as reported on Page 18.
The Chagossians’ tribulations
We will never give up
We will never give up’. Loud and Clear. This is not a challenge from the Chagossians (Ilois) exiled in Mauritius or The Seychelles, but from the Chagossians settled in Crawley, West Sussex, south-east England. They are members of the Chagissian Refugees Group (CRG).
The Chagossians obtained the right to British citizenship following a British High Court decision in 2000. They went to Court to declare illegal and inhumane their forcible removal from their island to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in the 1960s.
The Crawley Chagossians were demonstrating opposite the House of Commons in SW1, as the street nameplate ‘old palace yard’ indicates behind them, to mark the Chagossians Day on November 3 proclaimed by the Mauritius Government.
Unless, they obtain satisfaction they will be there every year on November 3, in greater numbers, to tell the world of their sufferings as a result of their expulsion from the Chagos group of islands in the Indian Ocean four decades ago. ‘We will never give up’ is their Cri de Bataille which will be taken up by generations to come, just as those in the pictures above have taken up from their elders driven out of the Chagos islands 40 years ago. Britain has now got an additional thorn in its flesh, ‘really from within’.
In Mauritius, on November 3, PM Navin Ramgoolam lashed out against the hypocrisy of the British Government in continuing to occupy the Chagos illegally in spite of a condemning UN Resolution, and to inflict misery on the displaced islanders.
A CRG member phoned me to say that they were not happy that former Mauritius Foreign Affairs Minister Anil Gayan said on a local Radio that Chagossian Bancoult leader was a British subject fighting the British Government. The leader enjoys dual nationality as many Mauritians do.
Chagos WikiLeaks inflame passions in Mauritius
During the Chagossians’ first High Court battle in the UK in 1999/2000 against Britain, it came to light that a White Hall official (senior British civil servant) had reported in confidential documents that the Chagos Archipelago made up of 65 islands were inhabited by a few Man Fridays* who had no permanent roots on the island.
It took the islanders a strong legal team to prove to the Court that they had been living on these islands for generations. The Court ruled that the British Government had acted illegally in removing them from their homes in the 6os and 70s to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)
The Supreme Court decreed that the Ilois had the right to return to their islands. But the British Government, in 2004, by an Order-in-Council signed by HM The Queen bypassed the Court’s ruling. The matter is now to be decided by the European Court of Justice.
But the British Government having leased the main island of Diego Garcia to the USA for military installations and defence purposes had no intention at any time to allow the Chagossians to return home. This has now transpired in the WikiLeaks documents being published on the internet.
As recently as May 2009, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told the Americans that the creation of the Marine Protected Zone on 55 of the Chagos Islands will prevent the Chagossians from ever returning to their islands.
Mr Colin Roberts, Foreign Office Director for Overseas Territories had the indecency to refer to the islanders as Man Fridays, (possibly in his mind subhuman) as his former officials did in the 1960s..
The leaks reveal that in converting the Chagos Archipelago into the world’s greatest marine park, it was the intention of the then British Foreign Secretary David Milliband of a Labour Government to put paid to the Chagossians’ attempt to ever return home.
The WikiLeaks revelations have angered Mauritian PM Navin Ramgoolam and his Foreign Affairs Minister Arvin Boolell. The British Prime Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Milliband had made the promise at the Trinidad CHOGM meeting last year that the Mauritius Government would be consulted in all decisions affecting the Chagos Archipelago, over which the Mauritius Government is claiming back its sovereignty.
Yet, the British Labour Government unilaterally created the Indian Ocean marine reserve park to make the Chagos a no-go area even to Mauritius. “They lied to us, they have reneged on their Trinidad pledges,” Mauritian politicians are shouting at home.
But for the British Government, their own interests come first. ‘Everything I have done has always been in the interest of Britain,’ said David Milliband during the recent British Labour Party leadership campaign. It is reported that PM Navin Ramgoolam declared that he was happy David Milliband lost the leadership battle. The Mauritian PM was infuriated to learn from the WikiLeaks that Milliband was allegedly lying to him all time.
In view of all these political or diplomatic lies, one may reasonably ask whether it has ever been the intention of the British government to give back the Chagos islands to Mauritius when it is never the intention of Britain to ever return The Falklands Islands to Argentina or the Rock of Gibraltar to Spain. Nous y sommes, Nous y restons, no more no less.
It has to be reiterated that former PM Mrs Thatcher said that the Chagos would be returned to Mauritius when it would no longer be needed for security purposes or defence of the West. When will that ever be! The 50-year lease of the Chagos Archipelago to the Americans runs out in 2016 (in five years’ time). According to the terms of the lease, it is renewable for another 50 years. Well, Mauritius wants to be party to future negotiations.
Prime Minister Ramgoolam has not attended the commemoration ceremony to mark the 200th anniversary of the British capture of Mauritius from the French in December 1810. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne was in Mauritius Dec 1 to 4, for the occasion. The PM has also turned down the British High Commissioner’s reception in honour of the Princess Royal, it is reported. Reuters states Foreign Secretary will convene the British High Commissioner to explain the duplicity of his government at home.
P.C.
* Reference to Robinson Crusoe’s servant Friday on the desert island.
