Beyond the Power
orca | 08.04.2007 11:24 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism
The Register carried an unusually gung-ho article yesterday about the US upgrading it's submarine base at Diego Garcia. Despite salivating over the military hardware and name dropping everyone from James Bond to the SBS, it was left to someone in the comments section to point out that the island was shamefully stolen from it's inhabitants by the British.
Remember the Falklands war - a task force dispatched to protect the residents of a 'British overseas territory' ? Well, the Chagossians (also known as Ilois) were residents of a 'British overseas territory' too and their treatment was slightly different from their white counterparts in the South Atlantic. By 'royal prerogative' they were deported so that the US could use the islands as a military base. It's a nice little earner. The US pay the UK $2 billion a year, the islanders get nothing.
In 2000 the High Court in London ruled that the islanders must be allowed to return. Robin Cook promised the government wouldn't appeal. Jack Straw simply invoked the royal perogative again (an 'order-in-coucil') and simply overturned the high court ruling. In 2006, the islanders QC argued that the extraterritorial use of the royal prerogative was “repugnant” and ultra vires ( 'beyond the power') and the High Court again agreed.
The latest huge US military investment on Diego Garcia highlights the contempt the UK government have for the Chagossians and for the rule of law, but also the contempt the US military has for the British courts. Mauritius has threatened to leave the commonwealth and take the UK to the International Court of Justice, although the rest of the commonwealth should really suspend Britains membership.
The UK Chagos Support Organisation
http://chagossupport.org.uk/
Chagossians reclaim our land: people evicted by the UK, land leased to the US military
http://www.refusingtokill.net/Chagos/chagos.htm
Island People Accuse US of Genocide
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2001/12/19183.html
Chagos Islanders' High Court Appeal Hearing against UK Govt
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/361557.html
US torture camp on UK colony Diego Garcia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/300333.html
US Navy builds Stingray-esque base in Indian Ocean
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/07/marineville_in_diego_garcia/
$31.9M for SSGN Support Facilities at Diego Garcia
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/04/319m-for-ssgn-support-facilities-at-diego-garcia/index.php
Diego Garcia Contract Rises to $310.6M as US Exercises 8th Option Period
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/06/diego-garcia-contract-rises-to-3106m-as-us-exercises-8th-option-period/index.php
The Mauritius president has threatened to leave the Commonwealth in protest at the UK's "barbarous" treatment of the people of the Chagos Islands. Sir Anerood Jugnauth says he may take the UK to the International Court of Justice over the islanders' plight.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6425675.stm
"So Diego Garcia is part of it. It extends from Guam in the Pacific all the way over to the Azores in the Atlantic and it goes through the Indian Ocean and Diego Garcia is a base. Well, okay. It was a ``British island,’’ so the British kicked out the population, and the United States took it over and turned it into a military base. As you know, I’m sure, the population has been pursuing the case through the British courts and won. You know the High Court in England accepted their case and said that the British Government, which technically still owns it, has to bring them back. The United States just said, `get lost’, and Britain got lost. It’s kind of like the World Court case [relating to the United States’ terrorist war against Nicaragua]. So they stay there. But that’s just plain exercise of force.
Nobody knows about it in the United States. If you do a database search in the press, I doubt if it’s been mentioned twice in the last twenty years! So no one knows. Nobody knows about the dispossessed population or anything that’s happened and therefore there’s no protest. You can’t protest something you do not know about.
That’s part of the duty of the free press and the intellectual community: make sure people do not know about things that might lead them to protest. If people knew, they would do something about it and the forces would have to get out of the island, the people would be back home. "
- Noam Chomsky
In 2000 the High Court in London ruled that the islanders must be allowed to return. Robin Cook promised the government wouldn't appeal. Jack Straw simply invoked the royal perogative again (an 'order-in-coucil') and simply overturned the high court ruling. In 2006, the islanders QC argued that the extraterritorial use of the royal prerogative was “repugnant” and ultra vires ( 'beyond the power') and the High Court again agreed.
The latest huge US military investment on Diego Garcia highlights the contempt the UK government have for the Chagossians and for the rule of law, but also the contempt the US military has for the British courts. Mauritius has threatened to leave the commonwealth and take the UK to the International Court of Justice, although the rest of the commonwealth should really suspend Britains membership.
The UK Chagos Support Organisation
http://chagossupport.org.uk/ Chagossians reclaim our land: people evicted by the UK, land leased to the US military
http://www.refusingtokill.net/Chagos/chagos.htm Island People Accuse US of Genocide
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2001/12/19183.html Chagos Islanders' High Court Appeal Hearing against UK Govt
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/361557.html US torture camp on UK colony Diego Garcia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/300333.html US Navy builds Stingray-esque base in Indian Ocean
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/07/marineville_in_diego_garcia/ $31.9M for SSGN Support Facilities at Diego Garcia
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/04/319m-for-ssgn-support-facilities-at-diego-garcia/index.php Diego Garcia Contract Rises to $310.6M as US Exercises 8th Option Period
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/06/diego-garcia-contract-rises-to-3106m-as-us-exercises-8th-option-period/index.php The Mauritius president has threatened to leave the Commonwealth in protest at the UK's "barbarous" treatment of the people of the Chagos Islands. Sir Anerood Jugnauth says he may take the UK to the International Court of Justice over the islanders' plight.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6425675.stm "So Diego Garcia is part of it. It extends from Guam in the Pacific all the way over to the Azores in the Atlantic and it goes through the Indian Ocean and Diego Garcia is a base. Well, okay. It was a ``British island,’’ so the British kicked out the population, and the United States took it over and turned it into a military base. As you know, I’m sure, the population has been pursuing the case through the British courts and won. You know the High Court in England accepted their case and said that the British Government, which technically still owns it, has to bring them back. The United States just said, `get lost’, and Britain got lost. It’s kind of like the World Court case [relating to the United States’ terrorist war against Nicaragua]. So they stay there. But that’s just plain exercise of force.
Nobody knows about it in the United States. If you do a database search in the press, I doubt if it’s been mentioned twice in the last twenty years! So no one knows. Nobody knows about the dispossessed population or anything that’s happened and therefore there’s no protest. You can’t protest something you do not know about.
That’s part of the duty of the free press and the intellectual community: make sure people do not know about things that might lead them to protest. If people knew, they would do something about it and the forces would have to get out of the island, the people would be back home. "
- Noam Chomsky
orca