Islanders can't return home to Island used in Iraq war

The islanders and their dependents, originally from the remote Chagos
archipelago, brought the legal action to win compensation for their compulsory
relocation in the 60s and 70s. They were forced to make way for a military
base.

The entire population of the British-owned islands - between 1,000 and 2,000
people - was deported to the African islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles
between 1967 and 1973, when the UK leased one of the islands to the US.

The island, Diego Garcia, was used by the US as a key cruise missile base
during the cold war. Still regarded as strategically vital, it was also used
during the recent conflict in Iraq.

In November 2000, two judges said that there was "no source of lawful
authority" to justify the way in which the islanders had been relocated.

They quashed the 1971 Immigration Ordinance enacted to give legal authority to
the scheme that cleared the way for construction of the US military base on
Diego Garcia, but also upheld the island's military status, which permits only
personnel authorised by the military to inhabit the island.

However, at the high court in London today, Mr Justice Ouseley ruled that there
were no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim, and that it had no real
prospect of success.
Although saying he sympathised with the islanders' claim, Mr Ouseley said that
they had no prospect of showing that the defendants enacted the Ordinance
knowing or being reckless that it was unlawful, or that any removal or
prevention of return whether before or after 1973 was unlawful.

The claim of unlawful exile as a legal wrong was not arguable, he ruled.

He awarded summary judgment to the attorney general, on behalf of the
government and Her Majesty's British Indian ocean territory commissioner.

The action on behalf of surviving islanders or their dependants was aimed at
recovering compensation, restitution of property and declarations relating to
the entitlement to return to the islands.

Counsel Robin Allen QC said during the hearing that the displaced islanders
were "totally destitute", because they had no skills beyond those in relation
to the coconut industry. Mauritius had no coconut industry, and a 20%
unemployment rate.

Most of the islands' displaced residents, known as Ilois, were agricultural
workers and fisherman, unequipped for work in their host countries' economies.
Those sent to Mauritius, more than 1,000 miles from their homeland, now live in
poverty in urban slums.

The Ilois are also suing the US government for compensation and repatriation
rights.

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