Chagossian Resistance Works! The Chagos Treaty is a major (if partial) victory [by David Vine]6/20/2025
Read the article at https://tomdispatch.com/resistance-works/
GOOD NEWS (REALLY!) Resistance Works: How Small Groups Took on Great Powers and Won a Victory for Decolonization, Africa, Indigenous Peoples, and More By David Vine At a time when many may feel that good news has gone the way of the dodo, look no further than the homeland of that long-extinct bird — Mauritius — for a dose of encouragement. There, among the islands of the Indian Ocean, news can be found about the power of resistance and the ability of small groups of people to band together to overcome the powerful. Amid ongoing slaughter from Gaza and Ukraine to Sudan and the Congo, the news also offers a victory for resolving conflicts through diplomacy rather than force. It’s a victory for decolonization and international law. And it’s a victory for Africa, the African diaspora, and indigenous and other displaced peoples who simply want to go home. To the shock of many, President Donald Trump actually played a role in making such good news possible by bucking far-right allies in the United States and Britain. The news came in late May when the British government signed a historic treaty with Mauritius giving up Britain’s last African colony, the Chagos Islands, and allow the exiled Chagossian people to return home to all but one of them. The British also promised to pay an estimated £3.4 billion over 99 years in exchange for continuing control over one island, the largest, Diego Garcia. Though few in the U.S. even know that it exists, the Chagos Archipelago, located in the center of the Indian Ocean, is also home to a major U.S. military base on Diego Garcia that has played a key role in virtually every U.S. war and military operation in the Middle East since the 1970s. Diego Garcia is one of the most powerful installations in a network of more than 750 U.S. military bases around the world that have helped control foreign lands in a largely unnoticed fashion since World War II. Far more secretive than the Guantánamo Bay naval base, Diego Garcia has been, with rare exceptions, off limits to anyone but U.S. and British military personnel since that base was created in 1971. Until recently, that ban also applied to the other Chagos Islands from which the indigenous Chagossian people were exiled during the base’s creation in what Human Rights Watch has called a “crime against humanity.” While the victories the Chagossians, a group numbering less than 8,000, finally achieved last month are anything but perfect, they wouldn’t have happened without a more than half-century-long struggle for justice. A real-life David and Goliath story, it demonstrates the ability of small but dedicated groups to overcome the most powerful governments on Earth. A History of Resistance The story begins around the time of the American Revolution when the ancestors of today’s Chagossians first began settling on Diego Garcia and the other uninhabited Chagos islands. Enslaved at the time, they were brought from Africa, along with indentured laborers from India, by French businessmen from Mauritius who used the workers to build coconut plantations there. Over time, the population grew, gaining its emancipation, while a new society emerged. First known as the Ilois (the Islanders), they developed their own traditions, history, and Chagossian Kreol language. Although their islands were dominated by plantations, the Chagossians enjoyed a generally secure life, thanks in part to their often militant demands for better working conditions. Over time, they came to enjoy universal employment, free basic health care and education, regular vacations, housing, burial benefits, and a workday they could control, while living on gorgeous tropical islands. “Life there paid little money, a very little,” one of the longtime leaders of the Chagossian struggle, Rita Bancoult, told me before her death in 2016, “but it was the sweet life.” “The Footprint of Freedom” Chagos remained a little-known part of the British Empire from the early nineteenth century when Great Britain seized the archipelago from France until the 1950s when Washington grew interested in the islands as possible military bases. Amidst Cold War competition with the Soviet Union and accelerating decolonization globally, U.S. officials worried about being evicted from bases in former European colonies then gaining their independence. Securing rights to build new military installations on strategically located islands became one solution to that perceived problem. Which is what led Stuart Barber, a U.S. Navy planner, to find what he called “that beautiful atoll of Diego Garcia, right in the middle of the ocean.” He and other officials loved Diego Garcia because it was within striking distance of a vast region, from southern Africa and the Middle East to South and Southeast Asia, while also possessing a protected lagoon capable of handling the largest naval vessels and a major air base. In 1960, U.S. officials began secret negotiations with their British counterparts. By 1965, they had convinced the British to violate international law by separating the Chagos Islands from the rest of its colony of Mauritius to create the “British Indian Ocean Territory.” No matter that U.N. decolonization rules then prohibited colonial powers from chopping up colonies when, like Mauritius, they were gaining their independence. Britain’s last created colony would have one purpose: hosting military bases. U.S. negotiators insisted Chagos come under their “exclusive control (without local inhabitants)” — an expulsion order embedded in a parenthetical phrase. U.S. and British officials sealed their deal with a 1966 agreement in which Washington would secretly transfer $14 million to the British government in exchange for basing rights on Diego Garcia. The British agreed to do the dirty work of getting rid of the Chagossians. First, they prevented any Chagossians who had left on vacation or for medical treatment from returning home. Next, they cut off food and medical supplies to the islands. Finally, they deported the remaining Chagossians 1,200 miles to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the western Indian Ocean. Both governments acknowledged that the expulsions were illegal. Both agreed to “maintain the fiction” that the Chagossians were “migrant laborers,” not a people whose ancestors had lived and died there for generations. In a secret cable, a British official called them “Tarzans” and, in a no less racist reference to Robinson Crusoe, “Man Fridays.” In 1971, as the U.S. Navy started base construction on Diego Garcia, British officials and American sailors rounded up people’s pet dogs, lured them into sealed sheds, and gassed them with the exhaust from Navy vehicles before burning their carcasses. Chagossians watched in horror. Most were then deported in the holds of overcrowded cargo ships carrying dried coconut, horses, and guano (bird shit). Chagossians have compared the conditions to those found on slave ships. In exile, they effectively received no resettlement assistance. When the Washington Post finally broke the story in 1975, a journalist found Chagossians living in “abject poverty” in the slums of Mauritius. By the 1980s, the base on Diego Garcia would be a multibillion-dollar installation. The U.S. military dubbed it the “Footprint of Freedom.” An Epic Struggle The Chagossians have long demanded both the right to go home and compensation for the theft of their homeland. Led mostly by a group of fiercely committed women, they protested, petitioned, held hunger strikes, resisted riot police, went to jail, approached the U.N., filed lawsuits, and pursued nearly every strategy imaginable to convince the U.S. and British governments to let them return. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chagossian protests in Mauritius won them small amounts of compensation from the British government (valued at around $6,000 per adult). Many used the money to pay off significant debts incurred since their arrival. Chagossians in the Seychelles, however, received nothing. Still, their desire to return to the land of their ancestors remained, and hope was rekindled when the Chagos Refugees Group sued the British government in 1997, led by Rita Bancoult’s son, Olivier. To the surprise of many, they won. Over several tumultuous years, British judges ruled their expulsion illegal three times — only to have Britain’s highest court repeatedly rule in favor of the government by a single vote. Judges in the U.S. similarly rejected a suit, deferring to the president’s power to make foreign policy. The European Court of Human Rights also ruled against them. A Strategic Alliance Despite the painful defeats, Chagossian prospects brightened when the Chagos Refugees Group allied with the Mauritian government to take Britain to the International Court of Justice. Aided by Chagossian testimony about their expulsion, which an African Union representative called “the voice of Africa,” Mauritius won. In 2019, that court overwhelmingly ruled that Mauritius was the rightful sovereign in Chagos. It directed the U.K. to end its colonial rule “as rapidly as possible.” A subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolution ordered the British “to cooperate with Mauritius in facilitating the resettlement” of Chagossians. Backed by the U.S., the British initially ignored the international consensus — until, in 2022, Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government suddenly began negotiations with the Mauritians. Two years later, a deal was reached with the support of the Biden administration. The deal recognized Mauritian sovereignty over Chagos but allowed Britain to retain control of Diego Garcia for at least 99 years, including the continued operation of the U.S. base. The Chagossians would be allowed to return to all their islands except, painfully, Diego Garcia and receive compensation. The Chagos Refugees Group and other Chagossian organizations generally supported the deal, while continuing to demand the right to live on Diego Garcia. Some smaller Chagossian groups, especially in Britain (where many Chagossians have lived since winning full U.K. citizenship in 2002), opposed the agreement. Some still support British rule. Others seek Chagossian sovereignty. Right-wing forces in Britain and the United States quickly tried to kill the deal. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brexit protagonist Nigel Farage, and then-Senator Marco Rubio campaigned for continued British colonial rule, often spouting bogus theories suggesting the agreement would benefit China. Donald Trump’s election and the appointment of Rubio as secretary of state left many fearing they would kill the treaty. Instead, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Washington, Trump indicated his support. A finalized treaty was in sight. An Imperfect Victory? In the last hours, the deal was briefly blocked by a lawsuit that a judge later dismissed. “I’ve been betrayed by the British government,” Bernadette Dugasse, one of two Chagossians who brought the suit, said of the treaty. “I will have to keep on fighting the British government till they accept for me to settle” on Diego Garcia (where she was born). Dugasse’s suit and plans for additional legal action are being funded by a shadowy “Great British PAC” that won’t disclose its donors. The group is led by right-wing political figures still trying, in their words, to “Save Chagos.” However, “saving Chagos” doesn’t mean saving Chagos for the Chagossians, but “saving” it from the end of British colonial control. In other words, right-wing figures are cynically using Chagossians to try to uphold the colonial status quo. (Even Dugasse fears she’s being used.) On the other hand, the Chagos Refugees Group and many other Chagossians are celebrating, at least partially. For the first time in more than half a century of struggle they can go home to most of their islands, even if they, too, criticize the ban on returning to Diego Garcia and the shamefully small amount of compensation being offered: just £40 million earmarked for a Chagossian “trust fund” operated by the Mauritian government (with British consultation). Divided among the entire population, this could be as little as £5,000 per person for the theft of their homeland and more than half a century in exile. (People in car accidents get far more.) “I’m very happy after such a long fight,” Sabrina Jean, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group U.K. Branch, told me. “But I’m also upset about how the U.K. government continues to treat us for all the suffering it gave Chagossians,” she added. “£40 million is not enough.” The Mauritian government should benefit more unambiguously than the Chagossians: The treaty formally ends decolonization from Britain, reuniting Mauritius and the Chagos Islands. Mauritius will receive an average of £101 million in rent per year for 99 years for Diego Garcia plus £1.125 billion in “development” funds paid over 25 years. “The development fund will be used to resettle” Chagossians on the islands outside Diego Garcia, said Olivier Bancoult, now the president of the Chagos Refugees Group, about a commitment he’s received from the Mauritian government. “They have promised to rebuild Chagos.” Bancoult and other Chagossians insist they also should receive some of the annual rent for Diego Garcia. “Parts of it needs to be used for Chagossians,” he told me by phone from Mauritius. The continuing ban on Chagossians living on Diego Garcia clearly violates Chagossians’ human rights as well as the International Court’s ruling and that U.N. resolution of 2019. Human Rights Watch criticized the treaty for appearing to “entrench the policy that prevents Chagossians from returning to Diego Garcia” and failing to acknowledge U.S. and British responsibility for compensating the Chagossians and reconstructing infrastructure to enable their return. “We will not give up concerning Diego,” Olivier Bancoult told me. For those born on Diego Garcia and those with ancestors buried there, it’s not enough to return to the other Chagos islands, at least 150 miles away. “We will continue to argue for our right to return to Diego Garcia,” he added. While U.S. and British officials have long used “security” as an excuse to keep Chagossians off the island, they could, in truth, still live on the other half of Diego Garcia, miles from the base, just as civilians live near U.S. bases worldwide. Civilian laborers who are neither U.S. nor British citizens have lived and worked there for decades. (Chagossians will be eligible for such jobs, although historically they’ve faced discrimination getting hired.) That the U.S. military has ended up a winner in the treaty could explain Donald Trump’s surprising support. The treaty secures base access for at least 99 years and possibly 40 more. Which means the treaty is a setback for those Mauritians, Americans, and others who have campaigned to close a base that has cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars and has been a launchpad for catastrophic wars in the Middle East, which a certain president claimed to oppose. While many Chagossians are privately critical of the base that caused their expulsion and occupies their land, most have prioritized going home over demanding its closure. The campaign to return has been hard enough. Ultimately, I’m in no position to decide if the Chagos treaty is a victory or not. That’s for Chagossians and Mauritians to decide, not a citizen of the country that, along with Great Britain, is the primary author of that ongoing, shameful crime. Let me note that victories are rarely, if ever, complete, especially when the power imbalance between parties is so vast. Chagossians, backed by allies in Mauritius and beyond, are continuing their struggle for the right to return to Diego Garcia, for the reconstruction of Chagossian society in Chagos, and for full, proper compensation. The Mauritian and British governments can correct the treaty’s flaws through a diplomatic “exchange of letters.” “We are closer to the goal” of full victory, Olivier assured me. “We are very near.” Having won the right to return to most of their islands after 50 years of struggle, Olivier has been thinking a lot about his mother, longtime leader Rita Bancoult. “I would like that my mom would be here, but I know if she would be here, she would be crying,” he said, “because she always believed in what I do, and she always encouraged me to go until the destination, the goal.” For now, inspired by the memory of his mother and too many Chagossians who will never see a return to their homeland, Olivier told me, “lalit kontin.” The struggle continues. Copyright 2025 David Vine David Vine, a TomDispatch regular, is the author most recently of The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State. He is also the author of of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia, and, Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, part of the American Empire Project. Chagossians Respond to UN Experts' Statement on Chagos Treaty [Letter to Volker Türk and UNOCHR]6/20/2025
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE LETTER
Pointe aux Sables, Mauritius 011 (230) 234-1024; [email protected] High Commissioner Volker Türk United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights June 20, 2025 Dear High Commissioner Türk and Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights: UN experts recently criticized the historic UK–Mauritius treaty over our people’s homeland, the Chagos Islands, raising valid concerns but risking harm to Chagossians by supporting a campaign that is trying to kill the treaty in the interest of maintaining UK colonialism in Chagos in violation of international law. While we appreciate the expert’s critique of the treaty’s major flaws, their call to renegotiate the treaty supports a deceptive “Save Chagos” campaign seeking to preserve British colonial rule. The treaty is imperfect but represents progress: after more than 50 years of exile, it finally allows us, Chagossians, to return to most of our homeland and provides some compensation and significant reconstruction funds. We have waited over 55 years for this. Although we have not received everything we have asked, we have obtained the right to return and it is significant for us. As a community, we have decided, as a matter of policy, to adopt this attitude of accepting what we can get now and start our journey back, as opposed to stay put. There will be no perfect decision that pleases everyone, but at least we are moving forward as a community. Calling for renegotiation of the treaty risks denying us this victory, leaving us with no resettlement rights. The experts rightly question the ban on our returning to Diego Garcia, the insulting £40 million “trust fund,” the lack of other reparations, and our exclusion from negotiations. Unfortunately, renegotiating the treaty would only support a campaign in the UK and US by politicians and others try to kill it by pretending they support the rights of Chagossians and spreading other false theories. The “Save Chagos” campaign means saving Chagos for British and US control not for us Chagossians. Instead, the UK and Mauritius should partner with us to “correct the treaty’s flaws” through diplomatic channels, such as an “exchange of letters,” as suggested by former British diplomat David Snoxell. This is the best way to ensure the treaty upholds our full human rights including the right to return to Diego Garcia, fair compensation, reconstruction in Chagos, and other repair. We hope the UN experts will stand with us and the majority of Chagossians who are supporting the treaty and demanding these improvements. - The Chagos Refugees Group and Chagos Refugees Group UK Branch ![]() Chagossians can finally go home to most of their homeland now that the UK and Mauritian governments finally signed a treaty for the Chagos Islands and the US military base on Diego Garcia. With its serious flaws, the treaty is a victory (however incomplete) for the Chagossians (and Mauritius), which have shown the world you can defeat two of the planet's most powerful countries in the UK and US. Here are key details: 1. The treaty is a victory for the majority of Chagossians who supported the deal because it allows them to return to all their islands except Diego Garcia, home to the US base. (A small minority of Chagossians want to maintain UK sovereignty.) 2. The £40 million UK "trust fund" for Chagossians promised in the treaty is better than nothing but shockingly small. Many Chagossians are angry. Divided among all Chagossians, each would get £4,000-£8,000 (or less) as compensation for the theft of their homeland and more than 50 years of exile. People get more compensation in car accidents. 3. Mauritius will receive around £3.4 billion over 99 years for allowing the UK to exercise sovereignty over Diego Garcia PLUS £1.125 billion in development funds over 25 years. 4. Mauritius should promise to dedicate ALL of the £1.125 billion in development money to pay for the resettlement of Chagossians and reconstruction of infrastructure in Chagos. 5. Chagossians should receive a significant proportion of the rental payments for the base given their ongoing exile from Diego Garcia. 6. The UK's continuing ban on Chagossians living on their largest island, Diego Garcia, is an outrage and ongoing human rights violation backed by the US. 7. Chagossians will continue to demand the right to return to Diego Garcia until they can return to all their islands. The UK and US governments can and must stop violating Chagossians' human rights and allow them to return. 8. The treaty does not and cannot prevent Chagossians from continuing to pursue proper compensation from the UK and US governments in courts and by other means if they wish to do so. ![]() Following news that President Donald Trump supports a UK-Mauritius treaty, five Chagossian groups welcome news that the treaty will soon be completed and outline nine principles that must govern their resettlement and reparations. Find a PDF version here. Press Contacts: Louis Olivier Bancoult, President, Chagos Refugees Group, 011 (230) 234-1024; [email protected] Pierre Prosper, Chair, Chagossian Committee Seychelles, [email protected] The statement appears in English, Morisien (Mauritian Creole), and Seselwa (Seychelles Creole). Chagossian Statement on Resettlement and Reparations in the Chagos Islands Treaty 2 April 2025 We, five groups representing the Chagossian people living in Mauritius, the United Kingdom, Seychelles, and other countries, welcome the news that the UK and Mauritian governments, supported by the United States, are close to finalizing a treaty for the Chagos Islands that will allow us to return to our homeland and provide “a new trust fund” and “other support for the benefit of Chagossians.” For more than 50 years, we, Chagossians, have been struggling to win the right to return home and receive proper reparations after we were exiled, in inhumane circumstances, during the creation of the US military base on Diego Garcia. Anticipating the signing of a treaty about our islands, we assert the following nine principles that must govern our resettlement and the provision of proper reparations. All Chagossians, wherever they live, must have: 1. The right to return to and resettle in our homeland in Chagos. 2. The right to make policy and direct the resettlement process in Chagos, to be the first to resettle the islands, and to benefit from resettlement. This includes the right to direct how our islands are to be rehabilitated, made fit for settlement, and developed in an environmentally sustainable manner. 3. The right to fast-track Mauritian citizenship and passports without charge for all Chagossians lacking Mauritian citizenship, including younger Chagossians with an ancestor born in Chagos. 4. The right to a regional house of representatives to allow us to make policy on and direct our islands’ political, economic, legal, environmental, and cultural future. 5. The right to direct the announced “trust fund” and “other support” following the highest standards of international human rights. 6. The right to receive freely available health care, psychological and other forms of therapy, education, training, and/or other rehabilitation services to repair damage from more than 50 years of suffering. 7. The right to receive full, proper reparations from all governments that committed human rights abuses against us. 8. The right to resettle unused parts of our island Diego Garcia given that we know we can live, work, and cohabit with the base just as other civilian populations cohabitate with US military bases around the world. 9. The right to additional compensation for continued occupation and exile for those Chagossians from Diego Garcia if the UK and US governments do not allow us to return home there. Although no amount of money or other reparations can repair all the damage Chagossians have suffered, we urge the UK, Mauritian, and US governments to consult with us while finalizing the treaty that allows us to return home and heal damage resulting from our inhumane and degrading treatment and more than half a century in exile. Signed, Chagos Refugees Group Chagos Refugees Group UK Branch Chagos Islanders Movement Seychelles Chagossians Committee UK Native Chagossians Council Déklarasion ban Chagossien lor zot Re- établismant ek Réparasion dan Traité Zil Chagos 2 Avril 2025 Nou, bann sink groupe ki réprézante lépep Chagossien ki rest dans Moris, L’angleterre, Sésel, ek lezot pei, noune encouragé par nouvel ki gouvernman UK ek Moris, souténu par Les Etat Unis, ki pré pou finaliz enn traité pou ban zil Chagos ki pou permet nou retourne dan nou péi natal ek ki p fourni “enn nouvo fond” ek les autres ban soutien ki pou bénéficier la kominoté Chagossien. Pendant plis ki 50 ans, nou La kominoté Chagossien, nou in lutté pu ki nou gagne drwa rétrouve nou la terre natale et pou nou gagne enn réparation apropriyé apré ki nu finn exile, dan sirkonstans iniman, pandan créasyon baz militer Amérikin lor Diego Garcia. Kuma p anticipe enn traité kot signature lor nou bann zil, nou pou bizin nef princip ki pou guide nou ver enn bon ré-établisement et done nou ban bon réparation ki apropriye. Tout Chagossian, n’inporte kote zot resté, bizin ena: 1. Droit pu nou Chagossien rétourne dan nu péi natale. 2. Droit pu nou Chagossien dirige démarse ré-établisman dan Chagos, vinn premye pu ré-établis bann zil, e pu benefisye ré-établisman. Sa inklir droit pou diriz kouma nou bann zil pou reabilite, vinn adapte pou abitasion, e devlope dan enn fason dirab pou lanvironnman. 3. Droit pu accélere sitwayennté ek paspor Morisien gratwi pu tu Chagossien ki pena sitwayennté Morisien, inklire zénerasyon pli zenn ki finn née ar Chagossien née dan Chagos. 4. Droit enn lasamblé rézional, pou permet nou dirige lavénir politik, ékonomik, légal, anvironnmantal, ek kiltirel nou bann zil. 5. Droit pou diriz “trust fund” ek “lézot soutien” ki finn anonsé d’apré bann pli haute standar internasional lor drwa humain. 6. Droit pou resevwar swen lasanté ki disponib san fre, swin sikolozik ek lezot form terapi, ledikasion, formasyon, ek oubyen lezot servis reabilitasyon pu repar domaz kin ganier akoz plis ki 50 ans soufrans. 7. Droit pou rod réparasion konplet ek apropriyé depi tou gouvernman ki finn komet violasion droit humain kontre nou. 8. Droit pou réetablir nou lor bann parti Diego Garcia ki pa pe servi, parski nou koné nou kapav viv, travay, ek partaz lakaz avek baz kuma lezot popilasion sivil koabite avek baz militer Amerikin partu dan lemond. 9. Droit konpansasion adisionel pou l’okipasion ek l’exil continuel pou bann Chagossien depi Diego Garcia si gouvernman UK ek US pa permet nou retourn lakaz laba. Mem si okenn som larzan ou lézot réparasyon pa kapav répare tou domaz ki Chagossien finn sibir, nou lans enn apel avek bann gouvernman UK, Moris ek US pou finalize enn treté ki pou aide nou rétourn lakaz ek soulage nou domaz plis ki enn demi-sièkl dan l’exil. Signé, Chagos Refugees Group Chagos Refugees Group UK Branch Chagos Islanders Movement Seychelles Chagossians Committee UK Native Chagossians Council Deklarasyon bann Sagosyen konsernan Reetablisman ek Reparasyon dan Trete pour Zil Sagos 2 Avril 2025 Nou, sa senk group ki pe reprezant bann Sagosyen ki reste Moris, Rwayonm Ini, Sesel, ek lezot pei, nou byen akey sa nouvel konm kwa ki Gouvernman Britanik, e Morisyen, avek sipor Lanmerik pe fini finaliz en trete pour bann zil Sagos ki pou permet nou retourn dan nou pei natal e fournir en ‘nouvo fon komen’ ek ‘lezot sipor pour benefis bann Sagosyen’. Depi plis ki 50 an, nou, bann Sagosyen, nou pe lite pour ganny nou drwa pour retourn lo nou zil e resevwar reparasyon apropriye apre ki nou ti ganny egzile, dan bann sirkonstans inimen, pandan kreasyon en baz militer lo Diego Garcia. Nou afirm sa nef pwen prensipal ki merit gouvern nou reetablisman e provizyon pour reparasyon apropriye. Tou Sagosyen, nenport landrwa kot nou reste, nou merit annan: 1) Drwa pour retourn e reetablir nou dan nou patri, Sagos. 2) Drwa pour fer polisi e diriz prosesis reetablisman dan Sagos, pour vin bann premye pour reetablir nou lo nou zil, e pour benefisye avek sa reetablisman. Sa i enkli drwa pour diriz fason ki nou zil ava ganny reabilite, vin konvenab pour letablisman e ganny devlope dan en mannyer ki soutenab pour lanvironnman. 3) Drwa pour akseler demann pour nasyonalite ek paspor Morisyen, san fre, pour tou Sagosyen ki napa nasyonalite Morisyen, enkli bann zenerasyon ki annan en zanset ki’n ne Sagos. 4) Drwa pour annan en Lasanble Rezyonnal ki permet nou fer polisi lo e diriz lavenir politik, ekonomik, legal, anvironnmantal, e kiltirel nou bann zil. 5) Drwa pour diriz sa ‘fon komen’ ek ‘lezot sipor’ ki’n ganny anonse an swivan bann pli o standar drwa imen enternasyonal. 6) Drwa pour resevwar swen lasante ki disponib san fre, sikolozik e lezot form terapi, ledikasyon, formasyon, e oubyen lezot servis reabilitasyon pou repar domaz ki’n ganny akoz plis ki 50 an soufrans. 7) Drwa pour resevwar reparasyon konplet e apropriye avek tou bann gouvernman ki’n komet labi drwa imen kont nou. 8) Drwa pour reetablir nou dan bann landrwa lo zil Diego Garcia ki pa pe ganny servi, etan donnen ki nou konnen ki nou kapab viv, travay, e koabit avek sa baz zis parey lezot popilasyon sivilyen i koabit avek bann baz militer atraver lemonn. 9) Drwa pour resevwar konpansasyon adisyonnel pour kontinyen reste an egzil pour bann Sagosyen ki sorti Diego Garcia si Gouvernman Britanik, e Ameriken pa permet nou retourn dan lakour, laba. Menm si okenn sonm larzan ouswa lezot reparasyon pa kapab repar tou domaz ki bann Sagosyen in sibir, nou enplor Gouvernman Britanik, e Ameriken pour konsilte nou pandan ki zot pe finaliz sa trete ki pou permet nou retourn se nou e geri domaz koze par bann tretman inimen e degradan ki nou’n sibir e plis ki lanmwatye en syek an egzil. Sinyen par, Group Refizye Sagos Group Refizye Sagos Brans UK Mouvman Zilwa Sagos Komite Sagosyen Sesel Konsey Natif Sagosyen UK ![]() Following news that President Trump supports a UK-Mauritius treaty, the UK and Mauritian governments are now finalizing a treaty that will allow Chagossians to return home and provide a "trust fund" and "other support," according to all prior indications. Read more here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chagos-trump-starmer-deal-signed-b2725247.html PRESS RELEASE
PDF and Word versions Chagossians Support UK-Mauritius Agreement for the Chagos Islands but Insist on Right to Return to Diego Garcia, Involvement in Final Treaty Negotiations, and Full Respect for International Law MEDIA CONTACT: Louis Olivier Bancoult, President, Chagos Refugees Group, (+230) 5751-7506, [email protected] Port Louis, Mauritius—October 14, the group representing the largest number of exiled Chagossians publicly affirmed its support for the recent agreement of the governments of the United Kingdom and Mauritius on sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago—including the United States military base on Diego Garcia—while insisting on Chagossians’ right to return to Diego Garcia and Chagossians’ full involvement in negotiations to finalize the agreement. More than 300 Chagossians unanimously declared their deep concern that the agreement disregards the full human rights of Chagossians from Diego Garcia, where most trace their ancestry. “We firmly request that all native Chagossians from Diego Garcia and their heirs be granted the right to freely visit and live on Diego Garcia, as is their natural right, given that foreign workers currently have this privilege,” Chagossians said in an Oct. 13 letter to the British High Commissioner in Mauritius, Charlotte Pierre. The letter was sent by Olivier Bancoult, Chagos Refugees Group president, declaring the unanimous decision of Chagossians at the group’s Oct. 13 Special Annual General Meeting. “It is imperative that Chagossians be actively involved in every step of the negotiation process” as the UK and Mauritius finalize a treaty “to ensure that Chagossians’ rights and interests are fully safeguarded,” the letter continues. Representing the unified voice of Chagossians in Mauritius, the letter also emphasized the need to: § Expedite resettlement and promised UK financial support to ensure elderly Chagossians born in Chagos receive justice in their final years of life. § Provide a comprehensive support package for Chagossians born in Chagos and their descendants, including a lifetime pension for those born in Chagos. § Create a local governance structure prioritizing Chagossian self-determination to ensure Chagossians shape the future of Chagos, including protecting its environment, in collaboration with the Mauritian government. § Dialogue with Chagossians worldwide to ensure the alignment of Chagossians’ interests in implementing the Chagos agreement. The Chagossian declaration follows the UK and Mauritian governments’ Oct. 3 announcement recognizing Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos islands while permitting the UK to exercise sovereignty on Diego Garcia for at least 99 years, to include the continued operation of the major US military base, in exchange for UK financial and other support. The agreement, which must be formalized in a treaty, said Chagossians would be allowed to resettle on all their islands except for Diego Garcia. If enacted, this would continue more than half a century during which Chagossians have been barred from Diego Garcia following their expulsion by the US and UK governments, between 1968 and 1973, as part of the creation of the US base on Diego Garcia. Chagos Refugees Group President Olivier Bancoult expressed Chagossians’ commitment to “collaborating in pursuit of a just and equitable resolution for all Chagossians, one that fully respects all the obligations of international law.” The full text of the Chagos Refugees Group letter is here. MEDIA CONTACTS Louis Olivier Bancoult President, Chagos Refugees Group (+230) 5751-7506 [email protected] Sabrina Jean Chair, Chagos Refugees Group UK (+44) 7832-113931 [email protected] Let Us Return USA!, the US support group for the exiled Chagossian people, wants to share some huge news that Chagossians are close to going home (at least to most of their islands)….
Watch Olivier Bancoult discuss Chagossians' historic victory here (in Morisiyen/Kreol + French).10/3/2024
Chagossians have won a historic--if incomplete--victory. A new UK-Mauritius agreement finally secures many Chagossians' right to return to their homeland and a UK support fund. This is huge news allowing Chagossians to go back to their Peros Banhos and Salomon islands. Watch Olivier Bancoult discuss the historic victory here (in Morisiyen/Kreol and French).
Unfortunately (to say the least), the agreement excludes the right of return to Diego Garcia. Excluding Chagossians' right to return to Diego Garcia violates the 2019 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling requiring protection of Chagossians' full human rights, including their fundamental right to live in their homeland. Excluding Diego Garcia is also unnecessary: the base occupies ~1/3 of the island and Chagossians could easily live on east side of Diego Garcia. Chagossians could return to live on Diego Garcia with no impact on base operations. Those who so desire could commute to work on the base as at many US bases overseas. The UK and Mauritius should correct the omission of Diego Garcia from the right of return and protect Chagossians' full human rights as required by the ICJ 2019 ruling. This article nicely summarizes all that is sadly wrong with this new agreement. Media caution: 1) Chagossians are the best to speak on the significance of this announcement. 2) Please don't repeat the US + UK talking points saying that Diego Garcia is a critical base for protecting the US + UK and global peace + security. The base, located thousands of miles from the US + Britain, hasn't been defensive. It's been an offensive launchpad for catastrophic wars in Iraq, Afghanistan + elsewhere in the Middle East. There's good news from the UK.
On July 4th, the prospects for the Chagossians finally returning home improved dramatically with the Labour Party’s election victory, returning Labour to power for the first time in 14 years. Although Labour leaders played key roles in the Chagossian exile, there’s real optimism that new Foreign Secretary David Lammy will make good on his stated support for the UK righting “a historic wrong” and allowing Chagossians “to return home” (as he wrote in the 2022 tweet above). Lammy is also the first UK Foreign Secretary who, like Chagossians, is the descendant of enslaved Africans. Chagossian leaders Olivier Bancoult and Sabrina Jean have already called on Lammy to work with Chagossians to allow them to return and “repair [the] injustice done.” In other good news, the Chagossians’ greatest supporter in Parliament over decades, Jeremy Corbyn, won re-election as an independent. What the US Government Must Do Given Labour’s professed support for the Chagossians, we must now pressure the Biden administration and the US military to support a return rather than being the impediment to justice that US officials have been since orchestrating the Chagossian exile six decades ago. This would be an easy way for Biden to show—not just say—he supports basic human rights and international law. Others Speaking Out for Chagossians Human Rights Watch will be pressing the UK and US governments to make good on past promises and allow the Chagossians to return; HRW is also supporting Chagossians’ demands for proper compensation. Retired UK government official David Snoxell has said, “Britain’s new government should resume Chagos Islands negotiations” with the government of Mauritius to allow resettlement. Listen to All Things Considered's extremely moving interview with Chagossian leader Olivier Bancoult: Chagos refugees continue the decades-long fight for justice
Read DeNeen Brown's major profile of the Chagossians and their struggle for justice in the US: "They were deported to build a U.S. naval base. Now they want reparations."
Watch and listen to Olivier's interview: “Crime Against Humanity”: Exiled from Diego Garcia for U.S. Military Base, Residents Demand to Return
At a critical moment in the Chagossian struggle, Chagos Refugees Group leaders Olivier Bancoult and Roger Alexis’ visited Washington, DC and New York City to build support in the US and push President Biden to do the right thing and finally support justice for Chagossians.
The trip generated more media coverage and more support in Congress than ever before. See here and below for links to NPR’s All Things Considered, the Washington Post, and Democracy Now. Allies in Congress appear interested in supporting a Congressional letter to the Biden administration, a hearing, and other public forms of support. This is a critical moment in the Chagossian struggle: the UK and Mauritian governments continue to negotiate over the future of the Chagos islands, including Chagossians’ right to return home. To now, the Biden administration has played an unhelpful role in these negotiations, appearing to support ongoing UK sovereignty in Chagos--in violation of the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly. Let Us Return USA's challenge is to help Chagossians convince the Biden administration to support Chagossians in finally returning home and receiving proper compensation for more than 50 years in exile. Media from the Trip: Please share widely! NPR: Chagos refugees continue the decades-long fight for justice Washington Post: They were deported to build a U.S. naval base. Now they want reparations. Democracy Now!: “Crime Against Humanity”: Exiled from Diego Garcia for U.S. Military Base, Residents Demand to Return Politico: Inching toward a Biden apology on Diego Garcia South African Broadcasting Corporation: Chagossians at the UN United Nations Foreign Correspondents Association: Press conference on Chagos Africa Now! [starts at 43:00 minutes]: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/wpfw-africanow/africanow-wednesday-3edGNL5VpxE/ Human Rights Watch Watch and share HRW's powerful video about Chagossians Read HRW’s report charging the US + UK with "crimes against humanity"
![]() Please read and share Olivier Bancoult's new article demanding the US and UK governments provide justice for the crimes against humanity committed against Chagossians! https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/chagos-islands-olivier-bancoult-uk-us-military-base-human-rights-watch/ The British government has announced a dramatic policy change: it will begin negotiations with the government of Mauritius about Chagossians returning home and sovereignty over Diego Garcia and the Chagos islands.
Chagossians must be an equal partner in these negotiations. Period. Human Rights Watch just published a major report showing that the US + UK governments committed CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY by forcibly displacing the Chagossian people during construction of the US military base on Diego Garcia + barring Chagossians from returning home for more than 1/2 a century.
The report, “That’s When the Nightmare Started," is an unprecedented condemnation of the US + UK by a major human rights organization. Human Rights Watch calls for full reparations for the Chagossians from the US + UK, including: 1) allowing #Chagossians to return home 2) resettlement assistance 3) proper compensation for 1/2 century of exile 4) official US + UK government apologies 5) public release of documents related to the Chagossians. Read the report: https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/02/15/thats-when-nightmare-started/uk-and-us-forced-displacement-chagossians-and Watch a 1-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a0Ah3k88yOc Watch a powerful 18-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkFhy_ET4ik For more coverage and reactions see https://twitter.com/LetUsReturnUSA + https://www.facebook.com/uschagossupport After the British government announced it would start negotiations with the Mauritian government over sovereignty in Chagos and Chagossians returning home, Chagossians rightly demanded they be part of these negotiations. Disturbingly the UK government said it would have “conversations” with Chagossians and then excluded them from the first round of talks. Chagossians and supporters including members of Parliament and Human Rights Watch have demanded that Chagossians be fully involved in all future discussions.
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