MORE than 400 Chagos Islanders and their supporters marched through Crawley town centre on Saturday, shouting: ‘We will return to Diego Garcia – it’s our right!’
Led by the banner of the Chagos Islanders Community Association, the march was joined by leading members of the GMB and Amicus trade unions, as well as members of the Young Socialists, as it made its way past the offices of West Sussex County Council and Crawley Town Hall, before going through the busy shopping centre.
The chants continued with: ‘Blair, Bush you should know, Chagos people are going home!’ and ‘Victory to the Chagos Islanders! Return them to their homes!’ – with islanders also shouting slogans in French.
Islanders carried placards saying: ‘We come from British Indian Ocean Territory – British government respect us’ and ‘Give our people their island – Diego Garcia’.
Cathy Betchen told News Line: ‘The government has not helped us. All they did was give us a passport, that’s it.’
Jean Francois Betchen said: ‘We are fighting to get our island back, to get our rights. We don’t have anything easy.
‘We can’t get a home. It is very difficult to work as well.’
Windy Marday said: ‘We are angry with the British government.
‘It is not fair to have a British passport, but then when we move here there is nothing here.
‘And our children and grandchildren, they are divided.’
Odette Botjeanne said: ‘We are very sad to be 40 years without our homeland. It feels like there is something missing.’
Andrew Owusu-Afriyie, an official from the GMB, was with the union’s Southern Region banner.
‘It’s supposed to be a civilised world, a democratic society,’ he said.
‘It wouldn’t be fair for a government to come along and chuck all the British people out of this island and put them somewhere, but at the moment that is what is happening to these people.
‘Not only that, they’re using their homeland to kill people,’ he added, referring to the US military base on Diego Garcia.
Adrian Baker, another GMB official, said the way the islanders have been treated is ‘absolutely appalling’.
He said: ‘The GMB has a history of struggle for justice and equality and when this was brought to our attention there was nothing we could do but support them.
‘They are part of a large community working and living around Gatwick Airport and anything we can do to support them, we’ll be there.’
Paul Maloney, a senior national organiser for the GMB, said: ‘It’s an international working-class issue – people who were enjoying their own way of life on their island and the island being taken off them to be used in war and war mongering.
‘The government must abolish these American bases and allow these people to go back to their homeland.’
The march ended with a rally in the civic centre, addressed by Hengride Permal, of the Chagos Islands Community Association.
She said: ‘I would like to say I have to make a speech in English and Creole because many of my people don’t speak in English.
‘They are the people that are struggling in this situation and have to know what is happening.’
She thanked all the Chagossian people and all the representatives of different groups for taking part in the march.
‘It’s our first march we have organised in Crawley and there will be more for sure,’ she said.
She continued: ‘It was 40 years ago the Chagossian people were forcibly driven out of their homeland without their belongings.
‘They have been living in poverty since then, in the slums of Mauritius and the Seychelles.
‘In Mauritius, we have demonstrated in front of the UK embassy and the US embassy.’
She continued: ‘The Chagos Islanders Community Association has been created to fight for our rights.
‘We created this group in Crawley and since then we have been fighting, especially with the council, for the rights of people.
‘We are faced with so many problems.
‘The Chagos Islanders Community Association started a demonstration in front of social services, so they would know what we are faced with.
‘But we were told we were trespassing on government land and we should move from there.
‘The case came to court – the court ruled this is private land and we have to end our demonstration, which we did, but our campaign didn’t stop there.
‘We are still fighting for our rights and thankfully we have good organisation behind us that is supporting us today, and the campaign is growing.
‘Chagossian people have been fighting all their lives and they are still fighting.
‘We are getting great support from the British people.
‘The fight continues and we are going to claim victory. There is no doubt about it.’
Mary Anne Cansamy said the islanders’ children were having problems keeping up at school because of their language difficulties.
‘We have a petition to sign about our Chagos children,’ she told the rally.
‘We want more money from the government to help the teachers who can help our children with the English language. Our children are our future, so please help us.’
GMB Southern Region senior organiser, Bob Stokes, said: ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle.
‘What person in the British Isles could even conceive of being turned out of their home and turned out of their homeland?
‘It’s a disgraceful thing and my message to Mr Blair is it’s not in my name and not in the names of my members in the GMB!
‘It’s a wrong that’s gone on for 40 years and it’s about time it was put right.
‘The GMB will support you in every way in your fight.
‘There’s a lot of GMB-sponsored MPs and we’ll certainly assist you in every possible way we can.
‘We’ll assist you in marches and demonstrations and contact with the government and assist you in your cause and I pledge £250 immediately to your cause.
‘That’s just the beginning. We will support you all the way and you will win your case.’
Frankie Bontemps, a member of the executive committee of the Chagos Islanders Community Association, said: ‘When I look at all the injustice done to our people 40 years ago, and the conditions we are forced into here in Britain, it seems to be repeating itself once again.
‘After the humiliating treatment we had from the British government, at least they could have given us some respect and given us a helping hand.
‘At least they could have helped us to integrate here. We deserve this right.’
Chris Mullan, a Labour councillor from West Sussex County Council, said: ‘I find this particular injustice awful, whatever way I look at it.
‘It is an historic and scandalous shame on the Harold Wilson government and the present Labour government has an absolute duty to correct it.’
Derek Isaacs, Crawley Amicus branch secretary, said: ‘I think we’ve got to make demands on the Americans to get off the islands now.
‘They’re just using it to bomb people.’
Hillingdon Hospital UNISON shop steward, Malkiat Bilku, said: ‘I’m very proud to be here with you and bring greetings from Hillingdon Hospital to your struggle.
‘Workers are struggling all over the world.
‘I come from India which had over 300 years of British rule. Our country threw British rule out, they had their land back and I’m very proud.’
Frank Sweeney, Workers Revolutionary Party general secretary, said: ‘They call it “British Indian Ocean Territory’’ – it was never the property of the British government to give away. The legal rights of the Chagos people were trampled into the dust.
‘The imperialists, in their stupidity, thought the Chagos people were going to forget their history, forget their homeland and forget the struggle they’ve been through.
‘The dismantling of the US base on Diego Garcia will be a huge victory for the working class of the world. It’s brought nothing but death and destruction.’
A collection raised over £590 to the islanders’ campaign and an appeal was made for equipment for the islanders’ association.