02.09.2018
Dear Comrades, Friends, Colleagues
The Diego Garcia (Chagos) case against Britain is coming up at the International Court of Justice at the Hague on 3, 4, 5 and 6 September. It is quite exciting that some light is finally being shed on this British-US land-grab of 1965!
Hearings will be streamed live and on demand (VOD) in English and French on the ICJ site www.icj-cij.org/en/multimedia-index as well as on UN Web TV, the official UN site.
The timetable of the Hearings, from the ICJ Press Release, was published on our Website earlier. You can see if your Government is giving an oral submission and/or written one. And spot other key countries’ times. We have also indicated how the country concerned voted at the UN General Assembly on June 2017 about whether to send the matter to the ICJ or not.
If you are nearby, you can queue up in the morning, as there are seats allotted to the public every day (No Bookings).
We realise that this is an Advisory Opinion, but politics is influenced by such things. We also realise that the importance of this hearing is that all over the world people get to know about the triple crime:
- Dismembering by UK of a colony prior to, and as condition of, Independence.
- Forcibly removing all the Mauritian Chagossians to Mauritius main island.
- Having conspired to set up a “dark site” for a US military base, from which other crimes are perpetrated – illegal wars like on Iraq and rendering of illegal prisoners and torture; in addition to nuclear materials being stored in flagrant disrespect for the binding UN Penindaba Treaty; as well as constant ruination of the natural environment around Diego Garcia.
We also realize that without our mobilization of the people of Mauritius, Chagossians, women and the working class in particular, Mauritius’ Government would never have taken the matter to the ICJ in the first place.
Warm wishes from Mauritius,
Lindsey Collen
For LALIT