Cape Town — A human rights group has accused the British government of lying, and the British and American governments of committing "crimes against humanity" in the process of establishing a strategically important U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The accusations, made in a 106-page report issued on Wednesday (February 15, 2023) by the New York-based group, Human Rights Watch, arise from the forced expulsion, in the 1960s and 1970s, of the residents of the Chagos archipelago.
The release of the report comes as the British government is attempting to negotiate a settlement with Mauritius over the future of the islands after losing two court cases in international tribunals over the legality of their occupation.
When Mauritius, a British colony, was negotiating its independence in the 1960s, Britain separated the archipelago from the country, declared it as a new colony – the British Indian Ocean Territory – and leased the biggest island, Diego Garcia, to the United States. The American air and naval base now there plays a key role in military operations not only in the Indian Ocean but in the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, That's When the Nightmare Started': UK and US Forced Displacement of the Chagossians and Ongoing Colonial Crimes, is based on interviews with a range of international experts, with Chagossians in Mauritius, the Seychelles and Britain, and on an examination of documents and court records.
Most Chagossians are the descendants of enslaved people transported from Mozambique and Madagascar by French and British colonial forces, beginning in the 18th century.
The HRW report highlights British government records from the 1960s, including one which said "the primary objective in acquiring these islands... was to ensure that Her Majesty's Government had full title to, and control over, these islands so that they could be used for the construction of defence facilities without hindrance or political agitation....
"These islands were... chosen not only for their strategic location but also because they had, for all practical purposes, no permanent population. It was implied in this objective, and recognised at the time, that we could not accept the principles governing our otherwise universal behaviour in our dependent territories, e.g. we could not accept that the interests of the inhabitants were paramount and that we should develop self-government there."
The report adds that Britain misled the United Nations by lying about whether the islanders lived there permanently, thus dodging their responsibility under the UN Charter to respect the principle of "equal rights and self-determination of peoples".
The report said: "In a minute sent on November 8, 1965 from the UK Foreign Office to the UK Mission to the UN, the Foreign Office claimed that 'the islands chosen have virtually no permanent inhabitants.' ... At this time, the UK ambassador to the UN asked that the phrase 'virtually' be removed... because if Chagos had any population, the UK would be accused of failing to carry out its obligations under the UN Charter to this population. The word 'virtually' was removed."
Human Rights Watch added: "For 50 years, state authorities of the UK and US governments deliberately forced all Chagossians to leave their homeland, resulting in a wide range of human rights violations, including the prevention of their return. Human Rights Watch believes these abuses amount to crimes against humanity that continue to the present.
"These crimes are both widespread, affecting the entire population of Chagossians, and systematic, being the result of deliberate state policy by both countries, originating at the highest levels. Both countries continue to hide their reasons for the displacement of Chagossians and the prevention of their return, for which there is no lawful justification."
HRW said apart from the crimes under international humanitarian law of forced displacement and preventing people from returning home, Britain has persecuted the Chagossians over their race and ethnicity. Here the report compared the plight of the Chagossians unfavourably with the treatment of the Falkland Islanders and Cypriots under British rule.
"The UK and its officials have primary responsibility for the crimes committed against the Chagossians," the report says. "U.S. officials also bear responsibility for instigating and implementing the forced displacement and assisting and supporting the ensuing crimes against Chagossians that amount to crimes against humanity.
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"The report urges the UK government to ensure the Chagossians can return to their homes, including Diego Garcia, and to provide reparations for the harm they have suffered. It calls on the U.S. government also to provide reparations, and on both governments to apologise for the treatment of the Chagossians.”
Human Rights Watch is also challenging Mauritius to ensure that Chagossians can return to the islands.
The Mauritian ambassador to the UN, Jagdish Koonjul, told an online seminar in 2020 that Mauritius had "no objection whatsoever to the U.S. base in Diego Garcia. ... The importance of the base cannot be underestimated."
He added that Mauritius would insist on a right of return for Chagossians – except to Diego Garcia. However, his government wanted Mauritians, including Chagossians, to be permitted to seek employment on Diego Garcia.
