More resistance against proposed military project on Assumption |24 February 2018

A group of Seychellois citizens have banded together under the official name of Save the Aldabra Island Group (SAIG) for a united concerted effort to lobby against the proposed military project on Assumption.

These citizens have been protesting every Saturday in the heart of Victoria against the government approval for an Indian military base on Assumption.

“The agenda of the group is strictly non-political and we are therefore inviting all Seychellois citizens to join us in this noble cause to save the Aldabra group of islands against a catastrophic and ill thought out military base,” says a spokesperson for the group.

The chairperson of the group is Terry Sandapin assisted by Allen Houareau and Raoul Rene Payet.

“SAIG believes in a friendly to all and enemy to none policy and is totally against any military base on our motherland, no matter the foreign power, especially a nuclear one. Furthermore a military base so close to a natural Unesco World Heritage Site and biological treasure such as Aldabra is totally unacceptable from an environmental, ecological and nature protection viewpoint,” the spokesperson says.

SAIG is asking the government under the ‘Free Access to Information Act’ and the right of the citizens of Seychelles to know the details of the proposed military base project of this magnitude and nationwide importance involving foreign nuclear power on our territory, to release the MoU and all the details in the agreement relating to this military base.

SAIG believes that such a contested project should be decided upon at least by a democratic process through a national referendum. Furthermore SAIG is calling on all the members of the National Assembly to vote against the military base agreement signed between the Seychelles government and that of India when the agreement/bill comes before them for ratification.

“There are already unconfirmed reports in public circulation that six local IDC (Islands Development Company) workers on Assumption have been given financial incentives to be repatriated to other islands. And that Indian construction workers are already on the island and construction of the military base has already started. Can the government clarify how come the project is already under construction even before the final ratification by the National Assembly?” the spokesperson asks.

Members of the SAIG will be filing a case before the Constitutional Court soon to contest the constitutional legality of the way the whole deal is being imposed on the Seychellois citizens.