Speech of Leader of Chagos Refugees Group FOR SEYCHELLES EU-ACP JULY MEETING Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great honour to stand in front of you today after 40 years of ongoing Chagossian struggle to provide a setting and a perspective for a session on the Chagos case. I wish to express my heart-felt appreciation for the opportunity given to me as the Chagossian leader. In 1968, 2500 of our people were uprooted from our homeland. 40 years later, only 700 of the native born Chagossian are still alive. Still alive yet not living, unable to breathe the freedom of liberty of being in one’s homeland. In the first week of June this, three of our elders passed away. Think! Imagine the loss that this represents to the Chagossia’s community? To us Chagossians the loss of one member is a constant reminder that the Chagossian’s culture, heritage and traditional knowledge are in danger of extinction. We the Chagossians are part of Africa and what distinguishes Africa from the rest of the world?It is our acceptance of different cultures, tribes and traditions? Each of us belongs to a different culture but together we form ONE Africa. Today I am appealing to all my African Brothers, to help me in my fight to return to my homeland. My fight is your fight and hand in hand, in a spirit of brotherhood, let us show that Africa did not, does not and will never accept of its brothers being deprived of its culture, its land, its HOME! The British High Court of Justice has established the responsibility of Britain, in this most arbitrary episode of total disregard of human rights in modern times. The fact that Britain has had to grant us British citizenship is an acknowledgment of the grievous wrong caused to us. The recognition of our status as natives of what is now officially the British Indian Ocean Territory is a further step towards justice. As citizens of Britain and Europe the Chagos case is of concern to us all. My presence here also serves to highlight the incapacity of Britain, worse still, its persistent refusal to abide by and act upon the various British court judgements upholding our fundamental rights of justice, of reparation and of return to our homeland. I do not have to remind you of the arbitrariness of its recourse to Orders in council and ultimately to the Law Lords which conceded in a split judgement. I invite you to reflect on the arguments, which formed the basis of the Law Lords’ judgement. Why did they not question legal or human rights? Why did the argument rest solely on the financial implications of acceding to our right of return to the Chagos and on the Britain’s security obligation towards the USA.? No wonder the Law Lords’ judgment was not unanimous! In the coming months, the European Court of Human Rights will start its hearing on our case. The EU ACP meeting here in this part of the Indian Ocean is symbolical. It is an indication that the Chagossian tragedy on the agenda, which has been upholding since the 1960s, is now being taken seriously. I am grateful for this humane gesture at this crucial juncture. As you know, the outgoing British government declared the Chagos a Marine Protected Area. The decision was taken unilaterally, without completing the full consultation process, and on the eve of general elections. The then Opposition parties denounced the outgoing government and took the commitment to review the whole affair. We have written to Prime Minister Cameron on this pre-emptive move by the preceding government in view of the forthcoming hearing by the European Court of Human Rights. We have reiterated our position, stated in a letter to the previous Foreign Secretary, in which we have denounced the move as a calculated device to undermine our right of return. We have also made it clear that we are all for protecting the land and marine environment of the Chagos, but not at the cost of our right of return. And not without us! We have been the secular guardians of our homeland’s environment and we have denounced the fallacious argument that the military base in Diego Garcia is a necessary component of the MPA project of the precious British government. The new government has already expressed its commitment to revise the ongoing policy on the Chagos case. The forthcoming hearing by the European Court of Human Rights will help break the dead end situation created by the Law Lords’ decision. Ladies and gentlemen, OUR fight to return to Our Homeland is filled with Ironies. We the Chagossians are also Africans, British and Europeans. We are welcomed at every forum, in every country, Ministers, Parliamentarians, Everyone sympathizes with us, understands our dilemma, shares our sorrows, acknowledges the injustice done but the fight goes on! WHY? We are fighting for our Human Rights but are Human Rights not inherent? We are born with them, so why do WE Chagosssians have to fight for rights which are already OURS? The answer is frighteningly clear. We are being denied our right to return to our homeland. I say WE because the injustice done to the Chagossians is injustice done to Mankind. Our forcible removal from our home reflects the ‘still sad music of humanity’. Remedying the wrong done to the Chagossians is redeeming mankind of acts of atrocities perpetuated to the chagosssians. Now, more than ever, Brothers from Africa and from Europe, should renew their commitments to uphold human rights values and only the resettlement of the Chagossians will evoke a genuine commitment to international human rights obligations. Nothing less!.