Compensation appeal rejected
Wednesday 28 July 2004
The Appeals Court decided on Thursday 22 July not to allow an appeal against last year's ruling denying the Chagossians compensation.
The Justices of Appeal were said to have been sympathetic, but ruled that the appeal came too late, and that the matter should have been sorted out soon after the last compensation payment was made in 1982.
In their conclusion they said: "This judgment brings to an end the quest of the displaced inhabitants of the Chagos Islands and their descendants for legal redress against the state directly responsible for expelling them from their homeland. They have not gone without compensation, but what they have received has done little to repair the wrecking of their families and communities, to restore their self-respect or to make amends for the underhand official conduct now publicly revealed by the documentary record... It may not be too late to make return possible, but such an outcome is a function of economic resources and political will, not of adjudication."
The decision is a major disappointment for the Chagossians, especially following the recent decrees banning all persons from the whole Chagos archipelago - which were passed with no public consultation.
Lawyers for the Chagossians are now considering taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
They are also preparing a fresh judicial review of the new banning Orders.
Related stories:
22 August 04 - Chagossians warn of hunger strikes if government does not act
17 June 04 - Judges consider appeal application
14 June 04 - Appeal hearing set for Thursday 17 June
19 May 04 - Chagossians take compensation fight to Court of Appeal
10 October 03 - Compensation ruling 'not the end of the road'