Diago Garcia

Diego Garcia is an island in the Indian Ocean near Mauritius and The Seychelles; it is a British ‘dependent’ Colony. Between 1968 and 1973 the population of this island was removed by the British Government, to surrounding island, where they subsequently lived in poverty and as 2^nd class citizens. This was done so the British Government could make a deal with the US American Army to create a base there.

The people who lived happily on this island for many generations, as fisherman where abruptly made homeless in new places, they where given no compensation and no other recourses to survive. Many have stated that they would have happily lived alongside this military base but they where forced to leave. The was one family who where away on another island getting treatment for their daughter who had cancer, and where never allowed to return to their home on Diego Garcia.

The lease on the island, yes there is a lease on an island between Britain and America, was for 50 years and is coming to and end. Since the people of Diego Garcia where evicted from their home they have been trying to get back there, taking out a number a lawsuits a legal battles with both the British and American governments. The British Government has since create an MPA, marine protection area, around the island, in a discreet attempt to make it difficult for the people to return to the island and try and rebuild the lives the had before.

I have mention this as an example of how colonialism is still going on, this isn’t the past, the British Government, my Government (I am a British citizen) still have this kind of power over other countries, and abuse this power to an extent that is just ridicules.

I also heard about this through my mother (who is at home in Britain) and I couldn’t find information on this through my usual news sources I had to do independent searches. This is a very big issue, but it is not talked about at all here, and very little in Britain, where it should be a bigger social problem. The fact that this is issue, or relating issues of colonialism or post-colonialism, are not really talked about in British media, or socially, ever. We are not really taught about the British Empire to any real extent, it’s not really social amnesia if most people are unaware of what our country, government and monarchy did to other countries and people. Our media is very unwilling to question such things, and the lack of education in general population for most of use to understand these issues the there full extent.

Just a quick thing now, looking that these articles, the British article (The Guardian) and the American article (The Huffington Post) both articles focus more in the military base aspect of the issue. About what kind of things might be going on there, the Huffington Post article at least mentions what happened to the original occupants of the island. The British article is more concerned with any military action around the island. This is further example of how British media, and by extension the government is unwell to let citizens understand how they are and have treated people of colonized countries and islands.

These are some articles talking about this issue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-vine/the-truth-about-diego-gar_b_7585546.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/7-things-diego-garcia-rendition-flights-documentaton-water-damage