Some Britishers revere their country as a global symbol of culture, civilisation and ethical morality. They claim that this world we live in, just wouldn’t had been the same if British Empire hadn’t spread civilisation to all the dark corners of the world. These people take an unusual amount of pride and honour in what British Empire bestowed upon the people of their former colonies. They credit the Colonial British Empire for upliftment of social and cultural developement of the former British Colonies.

Like millions of people around the world and even thousands of Britishers, I view the former British Empire as a parasitic institutions that stole and robbed the indegenous civilisations, where ever it laid foot. Only when you don’t get any respect from others, you need to attach a title in front of your name to force others to respect you. And One other thing British empire was and still is famous for is its elaborate titles like Sir, Lord, Baron, Baroness, Queen Mother and many more. After all why would anybody in their right mind respect thieves, bandits, murderers, torturers and tyrants. 

British Empire ravaged many ancient civilisations with their unquenchable lust for wealth and power. Just like a blood sucking parasite, British Empire stole and looted as much wealth from their colonies as much they could. And then just how a parasite that has sucked as much blood that it possibly could, let’s go off the victim, British Empire too freed their colonies when there was nothing else left to loot from them.

I think it very naive of some people to think of British empire as godsent blessing for people of their former colonies. British empire has only provided the people of its colonies pain, suffering and unimaginable anguish and for this they have looted all the wealth that they could find in their colonies. As a matter of fact, Whatever Britain own today, whether it is gold, wealth or Crown Jewels, they have stolen it all from other people. They are nothing more than glorified thieves, which guess most governments in the world today are especially USA. And this theft is still continuing to this very day.

HISTORY OF DIEGO GARCIA

The Chagos archipelago, Maldives and Mauritius was initially under French control but later it became a British Colony. Diego Garcia is a small island in Chagos Archipelago of the Indian Ocean. Chagos Archipelago is made up of thousands of small islands that also include Maldives. Like most other Islands Diego Garcia was uninhabited untill its discovery in early 14th century. But its name comes from a Spanish Sailor Diego Garcia Moguer who rediscovered it in 1544. 

Image of Diego Garcia taken from plane in 1986

By the 1800, several families mainly of African, Indian and Malay descent had settled in Diego Garcia. In 1812 British forces led by Gen.Wellington defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. Subsequently, Treaty Of Paris was signed by Britain and France in 1814, according to which all French Territories in Indian Ocean now belonged to British. After the changeover Diego Garcia was managed by Britain from nearby British Colony of Mauritius from 1814 to 1965.

Diego Garcia was a serene island with a population of nearly 3000 people. Majority of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia were fishermen, small scale farmers and hired labourers who worked at nearby coconut plantations. People of Diego Garcia had a very peaceful and friendly nature. One of the biggest quality of Garcians was they were avid dog lovers and at an average in every house there were atleast two dogs. Certain Garcians had even trained their dogs to catch fish for them. They lived a simple but fulfilling life and were completely content living on this small island that they considered their paradise.

In 1914 the island was visited by the German light cruiser SMS Emden half-way through its historic commerce raiding cruise during the first months of World War I.In 1942 the British established RAF Station Diego Garcia as an advanced flying boat unit at the East Point Plantation, staffed and equipped from No 205 and No 240 Squadrons, then stationed on Ceylon. Both Catalina and Sunderland aircraft were flown during the course of World War II in search of Japanese and German submarines and surface raiders. Following the conclusion of hostilities, the station was closed on 30 April 1946.  In 1962 the Chagos Agalega Company of the British colony of Seychelles purchased the Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros and moved company headquarters to Seychelles.

PLAN FOR THE US NAVAL BASE AT DIEGO GARCIA

After the Second World War Britain and United States of America signed a mutual defence agreement. This agreement allowed US to establish bases in the British Territories. Americans were looking for an idle location to set up their Naval Office in the Indian Ocean. Main objective was to find a location from where key areas of the Middle East like Iran and Iraq can be monitored. Second objective was to find a location that would bring both China and Russia in the range of US Bombers.

Currently more than 300 Aircraft and over 4000 US Personnel are stationed at Diego Garcia

When the search for possible location for the proposed US Naval base began, US was very wary of impact that any such base would have on the host nation. US were in favour of choosing an uninhabited island to avoid the UN’s decolonisation requirements and the resulting political issues of sovereignty and anti-America sentiments. Response of soon to be freed Mauritius government to the US plans for setting up a naval base in their vicinity was unknown. People of Mauritius were always greatly influenced by the policies of Indian Government, and as relations between India and US were already going through a rough patch, many were certain that Mauritius would also firmly oppose any kind of US Naval buildup in its neighbourhood.

To devoid Mauritius of causing any future issues, the British Colonial Office recommended to the UK Government in October 1964 to detach the Chagos from Mauritius. In January 1965, the US Embassy in London also formally requested the detachment of the Chagos as well. Ultimately in mid 1965 Mauritius was granted independence from the British Empire but on a conditional division of Chagos Archipelago. Chagos archipelago was divided up and Chagos Islands like Diego Garcia were separated from Mauritius and Reunion islands. On November 8, the UK created the the Colony of British Indian Ocean Territories(BIOT)by an Order in Council. Purpose of creating this colony was to give British Government an autonomous right over entire Chagos Archipelago.  

On December 30, 1966, the U.S. and UK signed a 50-year agreement to use the Chagos for military purposes with a condition that each island would be completely uninhabited. Reason for this condition was that any such agreement regarding an inhabited land requires a review and scrutiny by the UN’s Special Committee of the case in regard to guidelines setup by Decolonisation Committee also known as “Committed of 24”. It was the sole function of the Decolonisation Committee was to eradicate and avoid any human suffering caused by Colonial Powers. UK government was trying to

Residents of Diego Garcia outside BIOT Commissioner Bruce Greatbach’s office

bypass the rules and regulations that ordinarily must be followed in order to exchange, sell or lease an inhabited piece of land owned by a Colonial Country  to any other country. And to satisfy the stipulation that all of Chagos Archipelago was an uninhabited area, UK government declared that all the current inhabitants of Chagos especially Diego Garcia were temporary settlers and that there were no indigenous population on the islands.

People whome UK government were reffering to as temporary settlers, were the third or fourth and in some cases fifth generation of their families to be born on the island. Roots of these Chagossians to the island date back as far as 250 years. But the British Government was hell bent on making it appear that these indigenous populations of Chagos were mere temporarily settlers who had settled on the Chagos Islands very recently.

FORCED EXPULSION OF THE CHAGOSSIANS AND GARCIANS

Agreement had been already signed and statements about Chagosians being temporary settlers had already been made. So only thing left for Britishers to do was remove about 3000 indegenous people from the Island of Diego Garcia. Starting in March 1969, Chagossians visiting Mauritius found that they were no longer allowed to get on the steamer home. They were told their contracts to work on Diego Garcia had expired. This left them homeless, jobless and without means of support. It also prevented word from reaching the rest of the Diego Garcia population.

Heartbroken, sad and tired. Eyes of this elder Chagossian man say it all.

Relatives who travelled to Mauritius to seek their missing family members also found themselves unable to return.They were forcefully denied entry into the Diego Garcia Island. Many people from Diego Garcia regularly traveled to more advanced Islands like Mauritius for variety of reasons such as to recieve medical care, education and part time jobs. And all these people were denied entry back into Diego Garcia. Within just few days the population of Diego Garcia was reduced to 2300 from being 3000 just few days earlier.

Frustrated by loosing their friends and family, residents of Diego Garcia stopped leaving the islands totally. To psychologically break the will of the people, Britishers adopted a brutal and unhumane tactic. As I mentioned earlier dogs played an important part in the lives of residents of Diego Garcia. People were avid dog lovers and every family on the island had atleast two dogs as their pets. Obviously they loved their pets, so Britishers decided to use this love of the Garcians to hurt them. They announced that every dog on the Island must be put down. British soldiers went house to house and snatched their beloved pets and killed every single one of them. Children were left crying by the sudden loss of their beloved pets. 

A Chagossian Copra farmer working(1963)

This brutal action of British Soldiers made many Garcians fearful for their lives and well being of their loved ones. This lead to exodus of many families who fleed from their homes in fear for their lives. There was a hidden message from the Britishers to Garcians in their cruel act of killing all the dogs on the island. And the message was if you oppose us, next time we will do it you what we have done to your dogs. BIOT commissioner Bruce Greatbach was the guy who ordered all dogs on the island to be killed. Marcel Moulinie, who was in charge of managing the island, carried out this task by using raw meat to lure them into a shed for drying copra, gassing them with exhaust from U.S. military vehicles, and then setting their carcasses ablaze.

After this shameful incident the total population of Diego Garcia was reduced to less than 1700 peolple. In 1965, as part of a deal to grant Mauritian independence, the Chagos Archipelago had been split off from the Colony and was now called British Indian Ocean Territory. The territory’s new constitution was set out in a statutory instrument imposed unilaterally without any referendum or consultation with the Chagossians. Nothing about this constitution adhered to the concepts of Democracy. On April 16, 1971, The United Kingdom issued a policy called BIOT Immigration Ordinance #1 which made it a criminal offense for those without military clearance to be on the islands without a permit.

Between 1967 and 1973, the Chagossians, then numbering some 1700 people, were threatened, attacked and then forcefully expelled by the British government, first to the island of Peros Banhos 160 kms away from their homeland. And then in year 1973, Garcians and Changossians were once again forcefully moved to Mauritius. A number of Chagossians who were evicted reported they were threatened with being shot or bombed if they did not leave the island. One old man reported to Washinton Post journalist David Ottaway that an American official told him, “If you don’t leave you won’t be fed any longer.” Meanwhile, food stores on the island were allowed to deplete in order to pressure the remaining inhabitants to leave. 

The forced expulsion and dispossession of the Chagossians was for the purpose of establishing a US air and naval base on Diego Garcia, with a population of between 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. soldiers and support staff, as well as a few troops from the United Kingdom. So British government pulled a whole community of their citizens from their birthplace, land of their forefathers and from sacred ground in which their anscestors were laid to rest. But above all they were expelled from their homes and their motherland for aiding imperialistic policies of US.

Although British Government was primarily responsible for the suffering of Chagossians, but I think it is very important to mention here that the Mauritian Government was also equally responsible for worsening and prolonging the suffering of Chagossians. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was the Prime Minister of Mauritius at the time Chagossians were forcefully moved to Mauritius. He was well informed by British about the arrival of refugees from Chagos. Had he wished to help and aid Chagossians, he could have easilly done it. I mean how much money is required to feed 3000 people and to provide one room clean units for each family to stay in. This expense might be beyond the capability of a single man but for a country, this is at best negligible.The shear disregard shown by the Mauritian Government for the welfare of the Chagossians is beyond belief for any educated and civil human being.

Having lost their home forever, living a disgraceful life in deplorable conditions and watching their children, brothers, sisters slowly starve to death broke the spirit of many young Chagossians. The heartbreak and pain caused by the loss of their homes slowly and gradually diminished the spark of life within them. All of a sudden there was a epidemic of suicides amongst the young Chagossians. A whole community of British citizens was dying a slow excruciating death and this caused a lot of public outcry against the British a Government.

So finally in 1972, the British Government allocated £650,000 for compensation to the 426 Chagossians families displaced to Mauritius. This money was intended to be paid directly to the families, and was given to the Mauritian government for distribution. Here the PM of Mauritius once again showed his shameless side and withheld the money that he was supposed distribute amongst the Chagossians. Mauritian government, however, withheld the money until 1978. In response to litigation by islanders, the British Government contributed an additional £4 million, which was again turned over to the Mauritian Government, which distributed it in a series of disbursements between 1982 and 1987.

Even to this very day, the Chagossians refugees are still living in same ruins where they spent their first night in Mauritius. Children are still suffering from malnourishment and starvation, Chagossians elders and infants are dying of easilly treatable diseases and majority of Chagossians even struggle to earn even a single days requirements. Compelled by their conditions many young women and girls had to resort to prostitution to feed their families. 

US NAVAL BASE

Air Force One arrives at Diego Garcia

Between 1971 and 2001, the only residents on Diego Garcia were UK and United States military personnel and civilian employees of those countries. These included contract employees from the Phillipines and Mauritius, including some Ilois. During the combat operations from the atoll against Afghanistan (2001–2006) and Iraq (2003–2006), a number of allied militaries were based on the island including Australian, Japanese and the Republic of Korea. According to David Vine, “Today, at any given time, 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. troops and civilian support staff live on the island.” The inhabitants today do not rely on the island and the surrounding waters for sustenance. Although some recreational fishing for consumption is permitted, all other food is shipped in by sea or air.

PROTESTS BY CHAGOSSIANS

Southern Marsh of Diego Garcia totally devastated from Sulfuric acid dumping. This lagoon was once a paradise for sea creatures. Now nothing will grow here.

It emerged in 2014 that—for three decades, in violation of environmental rules—the American navy had been dumped hundreds of tonnes of sewage and waste water into a protected lagoon on Diego Garcia. In response to the revelations, the chair of the Chagos Refugees Group UK Branch, Sabrina Jean, noted:

On the 16th of March 2013, an internet petition was launched in the UK from the HM Government e-petitions website in the UK. This was written in order to pressure the UK Government to rethink its past actions in light of the fact that the lease on the Chagos Islands is scheduled to run out in December 2014.

Return the Chagos islanders to the Chagos Archipelago

The Chagos islanders were forcibly evicted from the Chagos Archipelago in 1973. This eviction was to pave way for a US military base which would be rented by the UK Government to the US for a £14 million discounted price on the Polaris missiles. The 2,000 Chagossians were relocated to the Seychelles and Mauritius, where they have lived ever since. In 2006, the Islanders won a High Court ruling which should allow them to return to the Islands. But since then, the Government has prevented their return by creating a marine park to protect the wildlife of the area and to also stop the Chagossians from fishing in the waters. I ask that the Government rethink their policy towards the Chagossians who had been living in the islands for hundreds of years, and allow the Islanders to return to their rightful home.