Topics in Brief

• Pages: 139-140

Page 139

House of Lords rejects Islanders' claim of right to return to Chagos

On October 22, a divided panel of the British House of Lords ruled against the Chagos Islanders who were trying to return to their homeland they lost when the U.K. leased the island of Diego Garcia to the United States for an air base. The base has assisted U.S. military operations ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan. The Chagos archipelago constitutes 55 low-lying islands spread over 21,000 square miles in the Indian ocean. Diego Garcia is the southernmost island making up three-fourths of the total land area. The Chagos form a part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. In 1971, British authorities excluded anyone from visiting the Chagos Islands except by permit. They also evacuated the islanders, principally to Mauritius, between 1967 and 1973. The government says the operation involved only a thousand islanders while the islanders claim that the number was about 2,000 who were then abandoned to live under wretched conditions. Three Law Lords ruled that the British government had no legal duty to allow the islanders to return, while two Law Lords dissented. The decision reversed last year's unanimous decision by the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) in the islanders' favor. See 2007 International Law Update 150. The litigation focused on the islanders' charge that the British government had reneged on a promise made in 2000 to let them go home. The majority opinion contended that the late foreign secretary's statement that he was working on the issue did not amount to a clear and unambiguous promise. Though the Court's split decision did give a victory to the government, Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued an apology for the manner in which the government had handled the evacuation and for the resulting hardships suffered by many islanders.

citation: The New York Times (online) via Associated Press, London, fi led Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 9:49 a.m. ET; text of judgment: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd081022/banc-1.htm.

U S. Congress has approved nuclear agreement with India

The following is a partial quote of Secretary Rice's statement on the subject. "Congressional approval ... of the U.S.-India Agreement for...