Thursday 25 October 2012

Olivier Bancoult responds to Greenpeace calls for UK fishing action

Dear All,

I have taken note of various articles published in the last 24 hours regarding illegal fishing in the Marine Protected Area.  It is clear that our case filed at the High Court of London contesting the legality of the MPA is justified.

Not only has the UK wrongfully declared the Chagos Archipelago a Marine Protected Area but it fails to implement it correctly! This is not a surprise! It is impossible to implement an illegal policy correctly after all!

It is clear that the intention was not to protect and preserve the environment but only as revealed by the wiki leaks, to prevent the Chagossians from resettling and to deny them any means of livelihood!

How is it possible that the British authorities have not noticed the Sri Lankans fishing in the Chagos Archipelago?  Sri Lankans are fishing illegally in the waters while we Chagossians are prevented from exercising our traditional right to fish?!

The Chagossians are human beings and fishing is what we know best and how we earn our living. How can we accept the fact that others are benefiting from our natural resources while we are living in dire poverty because all our fishermen are not allowed to fish?!

We are indeed looking forward to our judicial review case in November!

Kind Regards
Olivier Bancoult, OSK
Chairman CRG