The 55 islands and the sparkling seas around them are famed for their clean waters and pristine coral reefs. They are described by naturalists as the “other Galapagos,” “a lost paradise” and a “natural wonder” and are officially recognized as a biodiversity hotspot of global importance.
This week the British government, backed by nine of the world’s largest environment and science bodies, including the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Royal Society, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Greenpeace, is expected to signal that the 210,000km² area around the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean will become the world’s largest marine reserve. If it does, all fishing, collection of corals and hunting for turtles and other wildlife will be banned across an area twice the size of the British Isles.
More than 275,000 people from more than 200 nations have sent messages in support of Britain’s full protection of the Chagos Islands and their surrounding waters, but one group is distinctly uneasy.
The original Chagossians, who were deported between 1967 and 1973 to make way for a giant US air force base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, say they would in effect be barred from ever returning because the marine protection zone would stop them fishing, their main livelihood.
“There would be a natural injustice. The fish would have more rights than us,” said UK Chagos Support Association secretary Roch Evenor, who left the island when he was four.
The islanders, who number about 4,000 and live in exile in Britain, Mauritius and elsewhere, have battled through the British courts for nearly 20 years for the right to return and appeared to have won an important victory in 2000 when then-foreign secretary Robin Cook decided in their favor. However, following the Sept. 11 attacks, the UK government reversed Cook’s decision and the Chagos case has migrated between courts.
On Monday, Chagossian supporters accused the government of duplicity.
“The British government’s plan for a marine protected area is a grotesquely transparent ruse designed to perpetuate the banning of the people of Mauritius and Chagos from part of their own country,” Ram Seegobin of the Mauritian party Lalit de Klas said in a letter to Greenpeace.
“The conservation groups have fallen into a trap. They are being used by the government to prevent us returning,” Evenor said.
They were backed by Clive Stafford Smith, director of the human rights group Reprieve, who has challenged the UK government on the use of Diego Garcia by the US to render suspected terrorists.
“The truth is that no Chagossian has anything like equal rights with even the warty sea slug. There is no sense that the British government will let them go back. The government is not even contemplating equal rights for Chagossians and sea slugs,” he said.
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