Diego Garcia Essay

During the 1960s , the British made a secret agreement with the United States to sell the land of Diego Garcia for a military base. Not only is this area one of the U.S’s biggest military bases, but this base has been used to strike attacks in both Iraq wars (MacAskill 2004). It has become the a platform for the U.S to police the world. Consequently, before it became a military base for the U.S, the generations of Chagossians who inhabited the island, who were all forcibly deported from Diego Garcia, never to be able to return home again.
To justify the maltreatment and removal of thousands of people from their ancestral homeland the British stated that the Chagossians were transient contract workers, who did not originally come from Diego Garcia, but in fact were a floating population (Pilger 2004). To further justify the removal, the British funded feasibility surveys to determine if the land was livable. The surveys reported that the land would not be rehabitable because of the effects of global warming in the area, however no Chagossians were interviewed about the topic and thousands of soldiers currently live on the island , therefore it is habitable (MacAskill 2004).
When the

Chagossians were first being removed, there were a series of racial acts that transpired , all which would not have occurred if these British citizens where White. In 1971 , the British ordered all the dogs on Diego Garcia to be killed , which was used as a warning for the residents to leave the island ( Pilger, 2004). The Chagossians were forced on the Nordvea with only one suitcase to fit all of their belongings. Not only were conditions terrible on the ship to Mauritius but when they arrived to their destination , they were put to live in home that had no sanitation or water. The Chagossians faced abject poverty , unemployment , hunger, etc all which had never been an issue in their homeland. When they protested they were given a very small reparation, less than 3,000 pounds each which they were only given after they sign a contract that handed over their rights (Pilger 2004). During the same time period, that the Chagossians , who were British citizen , were being exploited and mistreated by their own sovereignty , the British were fighting for their White citizens to be able to stay on the Falkland Islands.
Since the cost to remove the Chagossians and rehabilitate them would be at the cost of the taxpayer , it would make sense for the general public to protest against such atrocities.

However there were no protest against the agreement , or taxpayer strikes from the British or American taxpayers. In addition, after the September 11 attacks , the perceived necessity for U.S defense has expanded , therefore some U.S citizens may approve the base since they believe it can prevent attacks at home. As for the British , they may not consider the Chagossians as citizens to their government because they do not actually live in Britain. As a result, these groups did not protest simply because of ignorance and because the exploitation of these people provided more benefits than personal

cost.
The main reason for the lack of taxpayer involvement is because there was not enough media coverage to cover the crime against humanity, particularly because both the U.S and Britain were not falsified information. In 2000, after they had won their case that determine that their deportation was illegal , a few hours later this decision was reversed because there was a treaty with Washington (Pilger 2004). The “treaty” was actually the agreement that was hidden from both Parliment and Congress, to sell the land to the U.S. In addition, when asked about the issue of allowing the Chagossians to go back to Diego Garcia , both the U.S and Britain used a ping pong method to avoid giving a distinct answer about their position. Furthermore, they intentionally mislead the public when they lied to the UN and stated that the Chagossians were not permanent residents.