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January 2004 roundup

Sunday 1 February 2004

Here are the edited highlights of our January 2004 update.  You can read the full update in the News & Features section.

• Seven MEPs have offered their support for the cause, following meetings with representatives of the Chagossians in October.  They have discussed the possibility of getting financial help for resettlement from the European Development Fund.

• The Chagossians are planning to appeal against October’s High Court decision that they are not entitled to compensation for their unlawful eviction.  Lawyers think the chances are good that the Court of Appeal will allow the appeal.  Representatives who met with the Foreign and Commonwealth office following the ruling say there is a complete lack of sympathy from the FCO for the misery they have caused.

• Is Saddam on Diego Garcia?  A report in the Sunday Times on January 11 suggested that this is likely.  Our patron, Tam Dalyell MP, tabled this as a question for Prime Minister Tony Blair, but in the end was only allowed to ask “Where is Saddam Hussein?” Tam is also seeking to find out why no progress has been made with resettlement feasibility studies since July 2002.  [NB. It has since become clear that Saddam Hussein is in Iraq, and not on Diego Garcia - 1 March 2004]

• Tam is stepping down from parliament at the end of his current term.   As the oldest MP, he is currently “Father of the House” and will be sorely missed.  However, Tam says he will be honoured to stay on as patron of the UK Chagos Support Association.

• In December, two stories in the news caught our attention as being similar to the story of the Chagossians.  Firstly, a group of Inuit people in Greenland are trying to regain their lands, which have been used by the US for military purposes for many years.  Secondly, an impoverished community of 5,000 people who were forcibly removed from their diamond-rich territory by British colonial authorities in South Africa in the 1920s, won the right to nearly a billion pounds in compensation.  The Chagossians were evicted in the 1960s and 1970s, yet compensation for them was refused by the British courts!

• Swedish MEP Ulla Sandbaek is highly indignant that fishing revenues from the British Indian Ocean Territory, which amount to around £1 million per year, are not used for the benefit of the territory’s true inhabitants – the Chagossians.  The Falkland Islanders get the income from licences to fish in their waters – why don’t the Chagossians?

• A commemorative stele was unveiled in Mauritius in November to mark the arrival of the Chagossians in Mauritius.  The unveiling was attended by Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Bérenger.

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