Over 50 years since the United States forced them out in order to build a military base on the island of Diego Garcia, exiled residents of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean continue to pressure Britain and the U.S. to pay reparations and apologize for expelling residents.
We speak with prominent Chagossian activist Olivier Bancoult, who is visiting the United States to meet with lawmakers and State Department officials. The U.S. is “fully responsible for what happened to our people,” says Bacoult. “We want the Biden administration to apologize and to make reparation for what they did wrong to our people.”
Located halfway between Africa and Indonesia and about 1,000 miles south of India, the military base on Diego Garcia played a key role in the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is a crime against humanity,” says author of Base Nation David Vine, who adds that there are more than 20 cases of the U.S. displacing local populations for military bases. “The Chagossians are not alone.”
See related:
- Some sources on the Chagos Islands
- Lalit Mauritius
- Stealing a Nation, a feature-length documentary in English on Vimeo by the late John Pilger.
Stealing a Nation – How the UK/US Stole the Diego Garcia Island – YouTube
Stealing a Nation is a 2004 Granada Television documentary written and directed by John Pilger, produced and directed by Christopher Martin and with reconstruction footage directed by Sean Crotty. The documentary is about the expulsion of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago, chiefly from Diego Garcia Island, forcibly removed by the British government between 1967 and 1973 to Mauritius, 1,000 miles away, so that the island could be used as an American and British airbase.
John Pilger – Stealing A Nation – Diego Garcia (Chago´s Island) [HD]
Transition Studies 