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Mauritius sues British government over Chagos marine protected area

by Dan Bacher
Everybody who cares about human rights and environmental justice should support the lawsuit by the Mauritian government against the creation of a marine protected area used to further the imperialist and racist policies of the U.S. and British governments towards the Chagossians.
Mauritius sues British government over Chagos marine protected area

by Dan Bacher

Following the revelations in the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and published on the UK Guardian website, Mauritius is now suing the United Kingdom over the so-called "Marine Protected Area" created around the Chagos Islands to deny the native Chagossians the right to return to their homeland.

"Chagos was hived off from Mauritius to create an air base when the country won its independence in the 1960s, and it has always insisted that it should have sovereignty over the islands," according to the UK Chagos Support Association (http://www.chagossupport.org.uk).

The Mauritian government has filed a case before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg. "By creating the protected marine area, Great Britain did not take into account Mauritius' rights and those of the Chagossians it shamefully evicted from Chagos," Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam stated.

The Wikileaks cables also revealed that the MPA was designed, with the approval of the Obama administration, to prevent the islanders from returning to their homeland while making sure that U.S. military interests were protected at their base on Diego Garcia.

In May 2009, Colin Roberts, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Director, Overseas Territories, told US embassy staff, "We do not regret the removal of the population," since removal was necessary for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to fulfill its "strategic purpose."

He also said removal of the indigenous people was the reason why the uninhabited islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and the surrounding waters are in "pristine" condition, adding that Diego Garcia's "excellent condition" reflects the "responsible stewardship" of the U/S. and U.K. forces using it.

In addition, the leaked cable stated, "Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, as the FCO's Roberts stated, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands' former inhabitants or their descendents from resettling in the BIOT."

In an egregious case of racism and imperialism under the guise of "marine protection," Greenpeace and other corporate environmental NGOs collaborated with the British and U.S. governments to deny the native Chagossians the right of return. While US and British government and NGO representatives claimed that the marine protected areas were designed to "protect" the ocean, the cables reveal that they were actually created to protect U.S. and British "interests" in the Indian Ocean.

The use of a marine reserve to deny the Chagossians their human rights has a direct parallel in efforts to deny indigenous people their rights in controversial "marine protected areas" being implemented under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative in California and in the Colorado River Delta in Baja California in the "Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California."

Everybody who cares about human rights and environmental justice should support the lawsuit by the Mauritian government against the creation of a marine protected area used to further the imperialist and racist policies of the U.S. and British governments towards the Chagossians.

For a complete discussion of the Wikileaks cables regarding the Chagos Marine Protected Area scandal, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/12/23/18667425.php.
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