the Disillusioned kid: Yes Minister
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Yes Minister

The UK Chagos Support Association have just posted this report (as a Word document) on their website. It originates from Mauritius and recounts visits by Bill Rammell and Don McKinnon to the Chagossian community living on the island earlier this month. For those who are unaware, Bill Rammell is a Foreign Office Minister whose purview extends to what the British government call the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and what everyone else calls the Chagos Archipelago, while Don McKinnon is the Commonwealth Secretary-General (and incidentally hails from New Zealand). Both men were in Mauritius for a UN conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

McKinnon's interest in the plight of the Chagossians is encouraging and consistent with some of his previous statements criticising the action of the British government on the issue. Rammell is similarly consistent, but in a less than heartening way. He treats the Chagossians with the contempt which has characterised UK policy about the islanders for more than forty-years. The (unknown) author of the report describes him as "unprofessional, undiplomatic, and condescending" and latter alleges that "it was almost as if he wanted everyone to know that Chagossians and this meeting were great inconveniences for him." Elsewhere the author notes that Rammell "took about a half-dozen questions, but provided no real answers and no new information" and recounts the Minister's assertion (which I've commented on previously) "that Chagossians live no differently than some Mauritians, and it is clear to him that their poverty and their life in these communities has 'absolutely nothing' to do with the fact that they are Chagossian."

Clearly a visit by a British Minister is a significant development in the Chagossian struggle, but alone it will change nothing. If we want to move the situation on we are going to need to step up pressure on the British government to which end you might care to consider some of these steps.

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.