I just found this article using my university proxy:
British court sides with Chagos natives: Expulsion decades ago at U.S. insistence called 'repugnant'
BYLINE: Neil Tweedie, The Daily Telegraph, with files from Agence France-Presse
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A16
LENGTH: 797 words
DATELINE: LONDON
LONDON - It was one of the most shameful episodes in British post-war history: the secret expulsion of an entire population of islanders, carried out in clear violation of international law, to make way for a giant U.S. military base. Yesterday, after more than 30 years in exile and endless court battles, the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago won the right to return to their home, a group of 65 islands in the Indian Ocean dominated by the U.S. air and naval base on Diego Garcia.
In a damning verdict, the High Court in London condemned as "repugnant" the decision at U.S. insistence to remove the 1,500 islanders in a series of expulsions between 1967 and 1973. It overturned orders in council made in 2004 by the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair that reversed a previous court decision and banned anyone from living on the islands, known officially as British Indian Ocean Territory. The orders, made under the royal prerogative, allowed the British government to dispense with the inconvenience of parliamentary oversight.
The judges, Lord Justice Hooper and Mr. Justice Cresswell, were scathing in their assessment of British policy, concluding, "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an order in council, exile a whole population from a British Overseas Territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is to us repugnant."
The decision is a severe embarrassment to Britain's Foreign Office, which has been under strong pressure from the United States to keep the Chagos islands empty save for U.S. military personnel and guest workers on Diego Garcia.
The expulsions were demanded by the United States in a secret agreement in 1966 that saw Britain receive a discount on the Polaris submarine-launched nuclear missile system in return for a 50-year lease on Diego Garcia. U.S. interest in the Indian Ocean grew in the 1960s as Britain's retreat from empire threatened to produce a power vacuum in waters near the Persian Gulf. U.S. 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. People, however, were not considered a problem.
Margaret Beckett, the new Foreign Secretary, must now decide whether to appeal the decision or relent and allow the islanders to go home.
Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP and consistent supporter of the Chagossians, tabled a motion in the Commons yesterday calling on the government to accept the verdict. Chagossians hold British citizenship, giving them the right to reside permanently in Britain, and many have headed here in search of a better life. Only about 850 island-born natives are still alive in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but they and their descendants now number about 7,000.
About 1,700 U.S. military and 1,500 civilian contractors live on Diego Garcia, along with 50 British officials. The court heard how senior officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office conspired to conceal the removal operation, which involved gassing animals and forcing pregnant women into the hold of a merchant ship. Some miscarried after being dumped in the slums of Mauritius. In one memorandum, Sir Denis Greenhill, head of the diplomatic service from 1969-73, described the Chagossians as a "few Tarzans or Men Fridays."
In one file used in evidence, a diplomat wrote of his discomfort at the "whopping fibs" used to portray the islanders, who mostly earned a living as semi-indentured labour on copra plantations, as temporary workers with no right of abode.
After the hearing, Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossians, delivered a letter to 10 Downing St. calling on Mr. Blair to honour the court's decision and allow his people to go home.
"We have always believed that a human being has the right to live in the place of his birth," he said. "Everywhere, the British government paints itself as the champion of human rights -- so what about the human rights of the Chagossian people?"
Richard Gifford, one of the islanders' lawyers, said, "The responsibility of our present government for victimizing its own citizens, and its subservience to the demands of a foreign power, are all too obvious. This is the fourth time in five years that Her Majesty's judges have deplored the treatment inflicted upon this fragile community." The Americans argue allowing people back on to the islands would threaten the safety of aircraft and ships operating from Diego Garcia, which play a central role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the supposed threat of missile attack or jamming has been dismissed as minimal.
If the government does not exercise its right of appeal in the next 28 days, the first islanders could return in the near future, Mr. Bancoult said.
GRAPHIC: Map: CHAGOS: (See hard copy for map).
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: News
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper