Diego Garcia

I came across this particular piece of civil rights abuse while reading the UK Guardian. In a nutshell, the former British colony of Diego Martin lies in the Chagos Archipelago. The natives had been living there from the days of the slave trade up until the 1950s. The United States had been looking for a site to gain military advantage near the Indian Ocean. They identified a perfect spot on one of the islands near to Diego Garcia and wished to purchase it from the United Kingdom. Fine no problem.

Except....

There were some really exotic and unique flora and fauna on this particular isle. When word of the intended sale and use of the island came forward the environmentalists were outraged and managed to get the island out of harms way. However this still left the US with somewhere to place their base of operations, and Britain just a little bit poorer.

And so...

Casting around their eyes their gaze fell upon our ill fated island. It was in the right location, it was the right size & best of all it was uninhabited. Yep. Uninhabited, save for a few marginal people who could easily be removed to some convenient place. Well that's what they did.

Q.E.D. Actually

Never mind that it's illegal on top of being cruel and inhumane. So the island of Diego Garcia was secretly leased by Britain to the United States in exchange for some money and preferential trading rights.With an automatic extension to lease for 20 years after the original period expired. It was a secret because it was never cleared before the sitting parliaments and flatly denied as being inhabited to the public as well as other accountable bodies. The people of Diego Garcia were declared negligible. And then they were made negligible.

Imagine having your regular food supplies stopped from entering the country. Not immediately critical to be sure but ominous nontheless. Then armed forces enter your country and start poisoning your dogs then clubbing them to death. After that you and your family members, and everyone else's family members are packed up in some animal holding cells to be dumped on another sovereign territory many miles away.

Bad enough this happens to you, but then two separate court cases uphold the verdict that you were treated badly but basically the British Government doesn't have to deal with you. It just makes you want to go through some serious Old Testament style weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth. This month a differnt court case provided some amount of relief, the Chagossians were legally free to return to other Chagossian islands. While still not home, and still under pressure from both British and American governments not to return, it's a big step forward.

You can find out more by doing google searches for Diego Garcia, the book by John Pilger called "Freedom Next Time", the documentary by Pilger "Stealing a Nation" or http://www.infoplease.com/spot/dg.html

What a way to start a day.