Plight of the Unpeople: Human rights and the Chagossians

2008-12-02

Human rights and the Chagossians

From the Letters section of TimesOnline, 2008 December 1

Sir, Today the Foreign and Commonwealth Office celebrates with an open day the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the UN Secretary-General will launch on December 10, Human Rights Day, under the theme of “dignity and justice for all of us”.

The UK has been a leading force in the promotion of human rights for the past 60 years. We have an admirable reputation for upholding human rights abroad, but not always at home. Those who visit the FCO for this celebration should spare a thought for the Chagossian people who were exiled by the UK from their homeland 40 years ago.

Article 9 of the universal declaration states: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” Article 8 provides that everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunal for acts violating their fundamental rights. Last month the law lords denied the Chagossians the right to return to their homeland. Despite this verdict, the FCO can still permit the Chagossians, who wish to resettle, to do so on two of the fifty-five islands of the archipelago. What a fitting way it would be to celebrate this anniversary and Human Rights Day.

David Snoxell

British High Commissioner to Mauritius, 2000-04

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Vietnamese

"If you really want to get a sense of “what happened” in Vietnam ... just imagine that you’re actually crouched in your basement, that your home above is ablaze, that lethal helicopters are hovering overhead, and that heavily-armed teenagers — foreigners who don’t speak your language — are out there in your yard, screaming commands you don’t understand, rolling grenades into your neighbor’s cellar, and if you run out through the flames, into the chaos, one of them might just shoot you." - Nick Turse

America

“Everywhere I go, every town I visit, you don’t see any industries. You don’t see any factories. You don’t see anything. We don’t make anything. We are really the poorest country on earth, but people refuse to see that. We are only surviving. We are only looking good because of our military might, because we are an empire. But this force cannot go on forever. It should be so obvious that we’re only chugging along, bullying people into lending us money and sending us stuff that we don’t deserve, that we haven’t earned. How can we survive? Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been reduced to living like savages in this self-proclaimed greatest country on earth.” - Linh Dinh

Chagossians

"First, they tried to shoot the dogs. Next, they tried to poison them with strychnine. When both failed as efficient killing methods, British government agents and U.S. Navy personnel used raw meat to lure the pets into a sealed shed. Locking them inside, they gassed the howling animals with exhaust piped in from U.S. military vehicles. Then, setting coconut husks ablaze, they burned the dogs’ carcasses as their owners were left to watch and ponder their own fate." - David Vine writing about the ethnic cleansing of Diego Garcia

2008-12-02

Human rights and the Chagossians

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