U.K.'s Highest Civil Appeals Court Rejects Return Of Evicted Islanders To Chagos

October 23, 2008 5:13 a.m. EST

London, U.K. (AHN) - U.K.'s highest civil appeals court ruled Wednesday that the government's eviction of inhabitants of Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean is legal dousing hopes by the islanders to return home.

The House of Lords, the lower house of Britain's parliament that has judicial function, favored the appeal of London to overturn earlier rulings of the Court of Appeals and the High Court allowing the evicted Chagossians to live in the outer islands of the main island of Diego Garcia, which is leased to the U.S. and hosts an American air and naval base.

Three Law Lords sided with the government while two favored the islanders, who won a High Court ruling in 2000 that compelled London to honor its promise to return them to their home.

The government issued an order in 2004 preventing the islanders from returning to Chagos as the U.S. needed to secure the base in Diego Garcia, a vital staging point of the U.S. military in its operation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The High Court rejected the order and a subsequent appeal of the government was junked by the Court of Appeals prompting London to bring the case to the House of Lords.

Some 2,000 Chagossians were removed from the British-controlled archipelago and transferred to Mauritius and Seychelles between 1966 and 1973 to pave way for the building of the U.S. military base. Many evicted Chagossians were also granted British citizenship.