Diego Garcia Essay

682 Words2 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

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