Let Them Return (original) (raw)

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This is the story of a scandal - a tale of deceit and cover-up at the highest levels of international affairs.

It is one that the UN tried to stop from happening but the governments involved ignored their message.

The root of the problem lay with American interest in the Indian Ocean which grew in the 1960s as Britain's retreat from empire threatened to produce a power vacuum in waters adjacent to the Persian Gulf. The US decided that a military base was needed.

US military surveyors considered Aldabra Island, another British possession nearer to Africa, but it was ruled out because of the presence of a rare species of turtle. The people of the Chagos archipelago, however, were not considered a problem.

Between 1968 and 1973, the entire population of this small group of islands in the Indian ocean were systematically removed from their homes and exiled, by a government who deliberately ‘maintained the fiction’ to the rest of the world that they didn’t exist, and therefore had no rights.

Recent court hearings have heard how senior officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the time of the expulsions conspired to conceal the operation, which involved the gassing of animals and the forcing of pregnant women into the hold of a merchant ship. Some miscarried after being dumped in the slums of Mauritius, where many islanders still remain.

On June 30 this year the House of Lords will begin to hear the British Government’s appeal; it comes after the Chagossians won their right to return to their outer islands in May 2007.

But this is not a story of antagonism but one of hope – a great hope that the Chagossians after 40 years of hardship, poverty and degradation can return to their homeland if they wish and live the kind of life that we all take for granted – a life free to make their own decisions and choices, in peace and safety.

The only person who can make this happen is you.

There are so many things that can you can do; by helping to show both the UK and US governments that we hold them accountable for their actions, and by practically helping resettlement by signing up to the Let Them Return campaign.

You will be part of an amazing journey that will take place over the next 12 months.

Just occasionally mankind has the chance to demonstrate the highest principles that we can achieve – truth, justice and the love of our fellow human beings. These moments shine out like beacons in the progress of our civilisation.

Make this one of those moments…