[Salon] Exiled Chagos Islanders return without British supervision for first time

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

The GUARDIAN report at the link transmitted below offers encouraging news regarding the potential for an eventual permanent return to their homeland of the survivors and descendants of the Chagos Islanders who were ethnically cleansed to make way for the American mega-base on the island of Diego Garcia.

Now that the International Court of Justice and an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly have confirmed that the Chagos Islands are illegally occupied Mauritian territory and both the government of Mauritius and the Chagossian leadership in exile have stated that the American base could remain and continue to operate under Mauritian sovereignty, the rationale for preventing Chagossians from returning to live on islands in the group other than Diego Garcia would appear to have evaporated -- unless, of course, the new rationale were to be avoiding the dangerous precedent of American and/or British compliance with international law and respect for human rights when such compliance or respect is contrary to their prior public positions or continuing perceived interests.

Aside from the grudging Anglo-American shift to opposing South African apartheid after decades of supporting it, it is difficult to recall any such precedent.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/mauritian-ship-takes-scientific-team-to-contested-chagos-islands

For anyone unfamiliar with the outrageous treatment of the Chagos Islanders, I recommend my distinguished recipient David Vine's book Island of Shame.