19.01.2004
Lalit delegates participated in the NO US BASES meeting at the WSF in Mumbai on Saturday 17th of January. In this meeting, some 200 delegates from some 25 countries gave accounts of what it is to live in a region where the US has installed a military base, and also gave accounts of their struggles to close these bases. These accounts, our delegates say, were "moving". Lalit delegates explained how Mauritian people inhabitants of the Chagos were forcibly removed in the mid 1960's, how there has been a vibrant interlinked struggle in Mauritius, to close the base, re-unify Mauritius, give inhabitants the right to return and that the US and UK give full compensation and reparation.
Lindsey Collen, Lalit delegate, is to speak today in the Anti-War General Assembly being held in the WSF, Mumbai to give a report of the NO US BASES meeting.
Yesterday, Lalit delegates were at the WSF meeting on Political parties and Social Movements which they found interesting.
Ian Jacob, Grup Zenn Lalit delegate at the International Youth Camp, part of the WSF, raised the question of the US military base on Diego Garcia, and the need for youth to mobilise for the closure of US military bases not just on Diego Garcia, but all over the world. A petition to support Lalit's campaign to close the base on Diego Garcia and all US bases is being circulated at the International Youth Camp.
There has been much interest in the campaign to close the US base on Diego Garcia at the WSF. Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn who the Lalit delegation met last week, raised the issue of the US base on Diego Garcia in his speech at the opening of the WSF.