May 2004 roundup
Wednesday 19 May 2004
Here are the edited highlights of the May 2004 newsletter, which you can also read in full in the News & Features section.
A Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for 17 or 18 June 2004, where lawyers will seek the go-ahead to appeal October’s ruling which denied the Chagossians compensation. (See below for the full story on this)
The UK Chagos Support Association remains neutral about the plan by the Mauritian protest group Lalit and the Chagos Refugee Group (CRG) to charter a boat and sail to Diego Garcia, as not all the Chagos groups agree with this approach. The main positive outcome of such a trip would be the worldwide publicity it would generate.
Sheridans solicitors (who are representing a group of Chagossians) are in touch with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), to see whether the Chagossian community qualify as bona fide refugees. If so they would be able to apply for resettlement funding.
The government’s new Chagos Conservation Management Plan includes an environmental protection zone which coincides exactly with the present military exclusion zone. What an amazing coincidence! It seems that any returning population would not be allowed to live in the protection zone, even though the military base is deemed to have little impact on the natural environment.
Although all the Chagossians in Crawley now have employment and accommodation, the Diego Garcia Island Council committee have had to give up the intended cultural centre through lack of funds.
The following question was asked recently in the Daily Mail: Why does the graveyard in Diego Garcia have so many headstones with Welsh names? Anyone know?