The US State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the HRW report.
London:
Britain and the United States are guilty of crimes against humanity in the forced displacement of indigenous peoples from the Chagos Islands, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.
In a new 106-report, the US-based rights group said the UK’s “racial persecution, and preventing their return home”, with support from Washington, constituted an “ongoing colonial crime”.
HRW urged that both countries should provide full reparations to the Chagossian people, including the right to remain in their homeland in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
“The UK is committing a terrible colonial crime today by treating all Chagossis as people without rights,” said Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor and lead author of the report.
“The UK and the US, who together drove the Chagossians from their homes, must provide full compensation for the damage they have done.”
London decided in 1965 to separate the archipelago from Mauritius, which was then part of the British Empire, and set up a joint military base with the United States on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
It continues to administer them but Mauritius, which became an independent Commonwealth of Nations in 1968, has long fought to bring the islands back to its territory and has won international support for it.
A 2019 International Court of Justice ruling supported her claim and said Britain should give up control of the remote archipelago.
Later that year, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution acknowledging “the Chagos Archipelago is an integral part of the territory of Mauritius” and recommended Britain withdraw within six months.
London and Mauritius have begun talks over the islands’ sovereignty, Mauritius’ prime minister said last month, after Britain confirmed in November that it had agreed to discuss their future.
However, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a written ministerial statement at the time that the countries had agreed that the military base at Diego Garcia would continue to operate whatever the outcome.
HRW noted that “there was no clear commitment to meaningful consultations with the Chagossians and to guarantee their right to reparations, including the right of return, in any settlement”.
The New York-headquartered organization interviewed dozens of people, including Chagossian and officials from the UK, US and Mauritius, and reviewed a range of documents for its report.
It said it had identified three crimes against humanity: a continuing colonial crime of forced displacement; preventing their repatriation by Britain; and their persecution by Britain on the basis of race and ethnicity.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) responded to the claims by stating that “we respect the work done by Human Rights Watch around the world, but we categorically reject this characterization of events”. We do.
“The UK expresses its deep regret regarding the manner in which Chagossian was removed from BIOT in the late 1960s and early 1970s.”
The US State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the HRW report.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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