The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has responded to our further query about the fate of the Chagos Islanders who were forcibly removed from their homeland sixty years ago so that the United Kingdom could allow the United States to construct a military base there to dominate the Indian Ocean, East Africa and the Middle East.In 2000 the Celtic League joined a wave of protest internationally about the treatment of the Chagossians and at our AGM held that year in Mann (Isle of Man) the following resolution was adopted:?This AGM:Condemns and the forced removal, between 1966 and 1969 of the population of the island of Diego Garcia from their home by the British and American governments, as one of the most shameful examples of colonial exploitation.Supports the campaign of the Islanders to both return to their island home and receive compensation from the British government for their forced removal and exploitation.?Once adopted an AGM resolution becomes policy for the League and since July, 2000 we have been committed to supporting the right of the Islanders to return.We again pressed the UK FCO earlier this year and there reply is set out below;It is clear that the UK are close to making a decision on possible resettlement however it is far from certain it is therefore imperative that NGOs, and African and Indian Ocean nations all lobby the United Kingdom to right this long injustice to the Island people of the Chagos.Text of FCO letter:?11 October 2016Dear Mr Moffatt,Thank you for your letter of 8 September to the Foreign Secretary about the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). As a member of the Overseas Territories Directorate, I have been asked to reply.The UK is clear about its sovereignty of BIOT. No international tribunal has ever called the UK?s sovereignty of BIOT into doubt. The Government is aware of the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in respect of the resettlement of Chagossians. Ratification of the Convention has not been extended to BIOT, and as such, we note that these questions remain outside the remit of the Committee.Successive Governments have expressed regret about the manner in which Chagossians were removed from BIOT in the late 1960s and early 1970s and we do not seek to justify those earlier actions or excuse that conduct. Substantial compensation (nearly