Listened to Jack Straw pontificating on ‘Any Questions’ about the rights of the people and at the same time claiming the Wikileaks were damaging to good governance. Straw is a fine one to talk about democracy. He used special powers to slip controversial measures through the Privy Council thereby avoiding trouble in Parliament. The issue was a continuance of the displacement of the Chagos Islanders in the 1960’s to make way for a giant US air base (Diego Garcia). The Wikileaks revelations give a glimpse into the Fortescue-Brown world of the FO, who still behave as though we have an empah.
“The Foreign Office misled parliament over the plight of thousands of islanders who were expelled from their Indian Ocean homeland to make way for a large US military base, according to secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
More than 2,000 islanders – described privately by the Foreign Office as "Man Fridays" – were evicted from the British colony of Diego Garcia in the 1960s and 1970s. The Foreign Office, backed by the US, has fought a long legal battle to prevent them returning home.
The islanders' quest to go back will be decided by a ruling, expected shortly, from the European court of human rights.
New leaked documents show the Foreign Office has privately admitted its latest plan to declare the islands the world's largest marine protection zone will end any chance of them being repatriated.
The admission is at odds with public claims by Foreign Office ministers that the proposed park would have no effect on the islanders' right of return. They have claimed the marine park was a ploy to block their return, claiming it would make it impossible for them to live there as it would ban fishing, their main livelihood.
The disclosure follows years of criticism levelled at Whitehall over the harsh treatment of the islanders, many of whom have lived in poverty in other countries since their deportation.
In the past, National Archive documents have revealed how the Foreign Office consistently lied about the eviction, maintaining the fiction that the islanders had not been permanent residents.
The latest leaked documents are US state department cables recording private meetings between Foreign Office mandarins and their American counterparts.
In May 2009, Colin Roberts, the Foreign Office director of overseas territories, told the Americans Diego Garcia's value in "assuring the security of the US and UK" had been "much more than anyone foresaw" in the 1960s, when the plan to set up the base was hatched.
"We do not regret the removal of the population since removal was necessary for [Diego Garcia] to fulfil its strategic purpose," he added under a passage that the Americans headed "Je ne regrette rien".
Roberts, admitting the government was "under pressure" from the islanders, told the US of the plan to set up the marine park on 55 islands around Diego Garcia, known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). "Roberts stated that, according to [Her Majesty's government's] current thinking on a reserve, there would be 'no human footprints' or 'Man Fridays' on the BIOT uninhabited islands," according to the American account of the meeting. The language echoes that used in 1966 when Denis Greenhill – later the Foreign Office's most senior official – described the inhabitants as "a few Tarzans and Man Fridays".
The leaked documents also record that Roberts "asserted that establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents".
This private stance differs from the Foreign Office's public line in April when a series of MPs asked Chris Bryant, the then Foreign Office minister, if the marine park ruled out the islanders, known as Chagossians, ever returning home.
Bryant told parliament the proposed park "will not have any direct or indirect effect on the rights or otherwise of Chagossians to return to the islands. These are two entirely separate issues". There is no suggestion that Bryant was aware of the conversation between Roberts and the Americans about Diego Garcia.
Leading conservation groups have supported the marine park plan. Roberts is quoted as telling the Americans that Britain's "environmental lobby is far more powerful than the [islanders'] advocates". Guardian Online 3/12/2010
What is it about power? Why does it turn people into such twats? The hubris revealed in these leaked documents is quite breathtaking. ‘Man Fridays’ and ‘Tarzans.’ Oh how they laughed at the Carlton Club.
The whole episode gives an insight into the way our rulers operate. Parliamentary scrutiny? Transparency? Fairness, honesty and decency? You must be joking
No wonder the excremental Straw is not happy at the leaks. They shatter his smooth veneer and expose him and his colleagues for what they are - deeply loathsome human beings.
The Chagos Islanders situation is one of the most shaming episodes in our history.
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