Salmond Challenges Prime Minister over UK Guantanamo Bay
SALMOND CHALLENGES PRIME MINISTER OVER UK GUANTANAMO BAY
‘SCANT REGARD FOR THE RULE OF LAW’
The leader of the SNP at Westminster, Mr Alex Salmond MP, today challenged the Prime Minister over the status of the island of Diego Garcia. He raised the issue during Prime Minister’s questions today [30 June 2004].
In the 1960’s the UK government ejected the resident population from the island. Now, the community, most of whom hold British Passports live mainly in Mauritius, 1700 miles from their homeland where they suffer from discrimination and poverty.
Speaking from Westminster Alex Salmond said:
“This government was elected with a manifesto pledge that it would conduct an ethical foreign policy. Time and again we are confronted with examples of this being a sham. The Prime Minister’s servile relationship with President Bush has, this month led to the entrenched disenfranchisement of 2000 Islanders and their relatives.
“The Prime Minister claims that he is committed to open government yet there has been no parliamentary debate on this issue. This means that his friends can continue to use UK sovereign Territory as one of the largest military bases outside the USA whilst those who should be able to call the island home are destitute.
“The issue has become even more important now with the suspicion that another Guantanamo bay style prison, ‘Camp Justice’, has been established on the island. While the governments claim that the US government would ask first, I fear that he is the last person in the world to realise he’s being taken for a ride, a ride which is costing lives and paying scant regard to the rule of law.”
Editors note
Alex Salmond today [30 June 2004] asked the Prime Minister the following question in the House of Commons.
Alex Salmond
“In the 1960’s the islanders of Diego Garcia were cleared from their island to make way for a military base. In the year 2000 they won a High Court judgement establishing the right of return, but in the last few weeks the Prime Minister has overturned that by an order in council because America wants to hang on to the base, perhaps to use it as another Guantanamo Bay. Now how is any of this compatible with national justice to these 2000 islanders and their descendents? And how can the Prime Minister pursue a shoulder-to-should relationship with George Bush when he seems to spend most of his time on his knees?”
The Prime Minister
“First of all in respect to Diego Garcia, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary set out a position in a statement just recently. Secondly, there is no question of using Diego Garcia as another Guantanamo Bay. And thirdly, I’m sorry that the right honourable gentleman exhibits his usual lack of judgement in thinking it’s a bad thing for this country to be a key ally of the United States of America. That may be something the Scottish National Party resents, but I think it is something the vast majority of people in this country realise is an important party of our security.”
Please Contact SNP Westminster Press office 07676 320 979
Background
* Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
* Migrant workers who call themselves the ‘Ilois’ arrived on the island in the 19th and 20th centuries.
* In 1965 the Chagos archipelago was given the name the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’ and remains British sovereign territory. At the same time, Diego Garcia was leased to the US military as a base.
* Between 1965 and 1970 the islanders were removed surreptitiously to Mauritius. They have been battling ever since to return to their home.
* In 2000 they achieved a major victory in the High Court when the judge ruled that the law preventing their return was invalid.
* On 10 June 2004 the government passed an order in council which means that full immigration control is restored to it. This means that the 2000 judgement is annulled.
* Since 2002 there have been suspicions that a ‘Camp Justice’ was being established on the island. In it’s June report Human Rights First, a well respected and independent NGO noted in their report ‘Ending Secret Detentions’ that terror suspects could well be held there, under the highly secretive US military agenda. Given the situation at the prison complex in Guantanamo Bay, it is not clear whether the government is fully aware of the treatment of suspects there even though it is UK territory.
