Diego Garcia

UN votes to return Chagos to Mauritius

Rajni Lallah of Lalit leads a protest march On 23 May the United Nations General Assembly voted massively – 116 in favour, 6 against – to get the UK to end its illegal occupation of part of Mauritius, Chagos, including Diego Garcia. This is a significant victory for de-colonisation. The issue of decolonisation of Chagos has finally hit the headlines world-wide in a big way. The reporter from The Guardian, Owen Bowcott, has gradually since 16 November 2016 caused the breach in the black-out that amounted to an international D-Notice that lasted until then. The extent of the victory was...

Chagos: an incomplete decolonisation

This court case, 50 years after the events was “riveting” - unusual for any court case. It was riveting because of the only-just-suppressed rage of many of those speaking in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution calling on the ICJ to give an Advisory Opinion on whether Britain in the 1960s completed the decolonisation of Mauritius, when it excised Chagos from Mauritius, and what the consequences of this incomplete decolonisation are today, including for the resettling by the Mauritian government of the Chagossian people on their home islands. We in LALIT and all our friends, comrades...

Mauritius socialists plan Diego Garcia protest

On Friday 8 December a demonstration in Mauritius calling for the huge US military base in Diego Garcia (in the Indian Ocean) to be shut down, and the archipelago's inhabitants to be allowed to return. On Thursday afternoon, the demonstration was banned. The Chagos archipelago, of which Diego Garcia is part, was ruled by Britain. After Mauritius became independent, Britain bought the archipelago backed and forcibly evicted its inhabitants, between 1968 and 1973, to make way for the US base. The Mauritian socialist organisation Lalit is part of a “Komite Diego” (Diego Garcia Committee), which...

Remove the US base from Diego Garcia!

The single-issue campaign to “get the Chagossians of Diego Garcia back to their Islands” has reached the terrible impasse where it finds itself well-nigh colluding with the US military base on Diego Garcia, as well as openly colluding with continued British colonization of this part of Mauritius... The struggle around Diego Garcia is now, for those bent on the single-issue campaign of “getting the Chagossians back”, finally reduced to how Chagossians can cohabit with the US military base. Or even how Chagossians can get priority for getting jobs on the military base. And at the same time many...

Home again, for a visit, after 40 years

By Lindsey Collen and Ragini Kistnasamy of LALIT, Mauritius IN the late 60s thousands of Mauritians living on Diego Garcia island were forced from their homes when all the islands of the Chagos Archipelago were dismembered from Mauritius by the British state to make way for an infamous US military base named, irony of ironies, Camp Justice. On 30 March 2006 a group from amongst the people originally forcibly removed were taken by ship to visit their home islands and tend the graves of their ancestors. The British Government chartered a ship to take a hundred of the Chagossians for this brief...

People of Diego Garcia finally get to visit home again

By Lindsey Collen and Ragini Kistnasamy of LALIT, Mauritius After a life-time's banishment, on 30 March 2006 a group from amongst the people originally forcibly removed, will finally be taken by ship to visit their home islands and tend the graves of their ancestors. They are due to visit Diego Garcia where the U.S.'s huge Indian Ocean military base is. You will remember that thousands of Mauritians living on Diego Garcia island were forced from their homes when all the Islands of the Chagos Archipelago were dismembered from Mauritius by the British State in the late '60s to make way for the...

The importance of…. Getting rid of the monarchy

The Queen’s a harmless old bag, isn’t she?  She may well be, but the monarchy is representative of class rule, inequality and the historic privilege of the aristocracy. A socialist society would have to abolish it and its out-of-date values. But the Queen doesn’t have any power anyway, does she?  The Queen doesn’t only give power to the House of Commons - the monarchy gives authority to unelected institutions such as the Lords and the Privy Council.  The Prime Minister has a power called “the Royal Prerogative”, which allows him to go to war without consulting Parliament, but with the Queen...

Demand justice for Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, is one of the biggest US military bases outside the USA. To clear space for it, the people of the islands were deported by the British government, the former colonial ruler. 2,000 people and their children were forcibly removed and abandoned on the dockside in Port Louis, on Mauritius main island. For 30 years the forcible removal of the Chagossians was kept “secret”, mainly through the use of the UK Official Secrets Act. In 2000, however, the Chagossians won a case in the UK courts for the right of return, only to lose another court case in 2003. At the...

LALIT Communique on Diego Garcia

LALIT notes with deep concern that the British government last week announced that it has passed Orders in Council now prohibiting access to all the Islands of Chagos. This effectively bans people from Chagos from visiting their own birthplace. The right to return to Chagos had been won in an important High Court case decided by the Law Lords in the year 2000. Immediately after this legal victory, an Order in Council was passed denying access to the main island of Chagos, Diego Garcia, where there is the huge US military base. LALIT and the Chagos Refugee Group have been gathering nation-wide...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.