Newsgroup: it.cultura.militare
Titolo: Pulizia etnica a Diego Garcia

The islanders were evicted by the British in the 60s and early 70s, after 
Britain struck a deal to lease its Indian Ocean territory to the American 
military for 50 years. 
The US wanted a base that could operate without interference from the 
local population, so Britain expelled nearly 1,800 descendants of African 
slaves and Indian plantation workers mainly to the Indian Ocean islands of 
Mauritius and the Seychelles. 
At the time, Britain claimed Diego Garcia had no native inhabitants and 
the Chagos islanders were simply temporary labourers rather than people 
who had lived there for generations. 
An historic ruling by the High Court in London last year deemed the 
eviction illegal and won the islanders the right to visit their homeland 
after over 30 years in exile. 
The islanders have never fully integrated into their adopted communities 
and say the expulsion condemned them to a lifetime of poverty. 
Large sections of the Chagos community in Mauritius are unemployed and 
lived in squalor, while 4,000 American sailors and contractors enjoy the 
beaches of Diego Garcia. 
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In 1965, when Mauritius was negotiating its independence from Britain, the 
then Prime Minister Harold Wilson made it clear there would be no deal 
without the Chagos islands being separated from Mauritius, and retained by 
Britain. 
The islands were of great strategic significance - situated right in the 
middle of the Indian Ocean - they were in the heart of an area prized by 
the then Soviet Union and China. 
What Mauritius did not know was that Britain had already done a deal with 
the United States - they would lease the largest island, Diego Garcia, for 
use as an air base and ship refuelling station. 
But the Americans did not want a "population problem", as they put it. 
There were about two thousand people living on the islands, mostly working 
in the coconut plantations. Descendants of African slaves and Indian 
plantation workers, the Chagos islanders had lived there for generations. 
Seewoosankar Mandary, who used to work at the weather station 
So Britain began a systematic, but highly secret, programme of 
resettlement. 
No return 
Families were accustomed to taking periodic trips to Mauritius by the only 
boat available. 
Once there, they - like Oliviers' family - found a return passage was 
refused to them. 
This policy continued for several years, until the programme was stepped 
up. The plantations were closed down, food supplies ended, and then in 
1970, the people on Diego Garcia were called together and told they would 
have to leave. 
Seewoosankar Mandary remembers that day well. He was working on the small 
weather station on the island, and took some photographs of the moment the 
people were told by the British administrator they were being evicted. 
"He told the people there will be changes in the way the place is run. In 
a few weeks time you will not be able to stay. The military will come and 
you will have to go," Mr Mandary remembered. 
All this was only revealed in 1975, through a United States congressional 
inquiry into the Diego Garcia military base. 
But even then, the British government tried to cover it up. They claimed 
the Illois had no right to live on the islands, and said they were just 
temporary contract workers from Mauritius and the Seychelles. 
In fact, declassified Foreign Office documents discovered at the Public 
Records Office in London reveal the policy of deception. 
Embarrassment 
One memo, dated 28 July 1965 says: "A small number of people were born 
there and, in some cases, their parents were born there too. The intention 
is, however, that none of them should be regarded as being permanent 
inhabitants of the islands." 
The court case being heard in London this week is an undoubted 
embarrassment to the British Government, and they have just revealed they 
have begun a feasibility study into whether the Ilois could return to some 
of the Chagos Islands, despite the continued presence of the American base 
on Diego Garcia. 
Unsupecting islanders were taken away in boats 
A Foreign Office statement released to the BBC says: "The government wants 
to be as practical and positive as we can. We are taking the advice of 
consultants to assess whether people could return to the outer islands and 
what the environmental impact would be." 
da 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/835963.stm
 
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Io mi ricordo che un articolo praticamente identico è stato postato
diversi anni fa. Possibile?
MG

 diversi anni fa. Possibile?
Wednesday, 10 January, 2001, 11:54 GMT
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stand like a rock. -- Thomas Jefferson