from the African Press Agency
The leader of the Chagos Refugee Group in Mauritius on Friday demanded from Britain the right of the Chagossian population living in Mauritius to go back to the Chagos archipelago on the occasion of All Souls Day on November 2.
The Chagossians were expelled by the British in 1965 from the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius and Seychelles in order to make way for a huge American air force base on the main island, Diego Garcia.
In a release on Friday in the Mauritian capital Port Louis, Olivier Bancoult said the demand has been handed over to Janett Douglas, representative of the British Foreign Commonwealth Office who was recently in Mauritius.
He told Douglas that another group of Chagossians, after the one in 2006, should be allowed to travel to the archipelago in order to lay wreaths on the tombs of their ancestors and clean the cemeteries which he said are in a deplorable state.
Bancoult also said he has insisted that a group of carpenters be allowed to work on the islands of the archipelago in order to rehabilitate the cemeteries on the main islands of Peros Banhos, Salomon and Diego Garcia.
He said the British authorities should issue British passports to all Chagossians and their descendants.
He said that following a ruling of the British House of Lords which has refused the right to the Chagossians to be settled back his organization has raised the matter with the European Court of Human Rights.
A ruling by the European court is expected by March, he said.
He said that a panel of British, French and Italian barristers has volunteered to help his organization.
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