THE UK Government has been told it must give the people of its last colony in Africa the right to self determination as furious islanders tell of their feeling of “betrayal”.
Chagossians were forcibly removed from their homes on the main island Diego Garcia to make way for a UK and US military base from 1967 and 1973 and are banned from returning.
They have hit out at the UK Government for denying their right to self-determination in a deal which critics say leaves them at the mercy of the Mauritian government – where anyone suggesting any part of the country is “British” could land them with a 10-year jail sentence.
The Mauritian authorities have also been accused of attempting to “erase the culture and the language” of the Chagossian people.
Bernadette Dugasse, 67, who was born in Diego Garcia before being cleared from her homeland, told The National she felt like “nobody cares” about the plight of the Chagossian people.
Dugasse, who now lives in Croydon, London, said: “We people born on Diego Garcia want to be able to go to Diego Garcia. They signed a lease for 99 years: Am I going to live for 99 years, will my children live for 99 years?”
The UK and US military base will remain, according to a treaty between Britain and Mauritius yet to be ratified, for an “initial period” of 99 years.
She said that the UK authorities, who Dugasse and others have spent years lobbying, have told them the base will help “save the world” from conflict. Dugasse said: “Fine, you’re using Diego Garcia to save the world, who’s saving the poor Chagossian people? Nobody. Nobody cares.”
Dugasse (above), like other campaigners who are opposed to the Chagos Islands becoming part of Mauritius and want to return to their homeland, only found out about the deal through the news.
She accused Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty, who has responsibility for the Overseas Territories, of failing to update campaigners in a meeting he held with them on Monday.
She said: “It came as a big shock to me, we heard it on the news like everybody else. Nobody consulted us to let us know what was going to happen.
“On Monday, we had a meeting with Stephen Doughty, he said he was not going to talk about negotiations, then on Thursday: boom, it came out.
“I feel betrayed and enraged, frustrated. We talked to the Conservative Party, we talked to Labour before they came to power. We said that we wanted to stay under Britain as we were, not to go under Mauritius. We don’t trust the Mauritian government.
“Like the old people said and our ancestors said, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.”
Crawley, Sussex is home to around 3000 Chagossians, thought to be one of the largest populations of the ethnic group in the world.
Its new Labour MP Peter Lamb (below) has slammed the UK Government for its decision to hand over the islands to Mauritius and said they cannot be denied their human right to self determination.
He told The National the Government had failed to consult with him or campaigners before the announcement.
Lamb said he had spent 16 years working with Chagossians, adding: “In all that time, I’ve never heard any of the community suggest that they want to be part of Mauritius, quite the contrary.”
He argued that they faced discrimination in the country and were “treated as second-class citizens” by the Mauritians.
“I’ve spoke with members of the community in tears about how their culture is being erased and that is essentially what we’re finishing off here,” said Lamb.
“They got very little support in terms of trying to resettle after they were relocated there and that there were attempts to essentially erase the culture and the language and to promote solely Mauritian identity.”
Those who questioned Mauritius’s territorial integrity – those who have campaigned for independence, for instance – could face prison if they return, he said.
Lamb added: “How many of the people who’ve moved to the UK who want to go home are going to have the option to go home when they’re facing a 10-year jail sentence for expressing an opinion?”
While Lamb said it was “for the people who lived on those islands to decide what happens to their community”, he suggested a referendum of the islanders should be used to find out what they want the future of the territory to be.
He said: “There was no connection between Mauritius and the islands other than that the French put them into the same colonial administration for convenience purposes. We maintained that until 1965.
“I’m not in any way claiming that Britain has a right to this territory – we clearly do not. But it’s not for us to decide where it goes, it’s not for Mauritius to claim that it is theirs on the back of no history of actually owning those islands.
“It is for the people who lived on those islands to decide what happens to their community.”
Lamb added: “There needs to be a referendum, there needs to be active consultation. The community has the right to self-determination under Article One of the UN Charter and we have completely ignored that.”
The UK Government was approached for comment.
