Diego Garcia remains one of the worst atrocities of all time British foreign policy – and it continues under New Labour. In 1971 Britain commenced the forced removal of the population of the Chagos Archipelago to make way for a huge US airbase. This base has been used for bombing Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a torture centre under extraordinary rendition.
The Chagossians were rounded up by military force, transported over 2000 miles and dumped without support on a variety of faraway islands. Many subsequently died. The term “genocide” has not commonly been applied to Brtain’s treatment of the Chagossians. Genocide is an overused word. But if what Britain did – and is still doing – to the Chagossians is not genocide, then the word has no meaning.
It has taken many years for an effective lobby to grow up for the small, dwindling and shattered group of survivors of this atrocity. But progress has been made, interestingly with a lot of effective support from horrified ex-FCO and Royal Naval personnel. Progress has been made through the UK courts – but has been resisted tooth and nail, on behalf of their US masters, by Jack Straw and David Miliband.
Miliband has now produced what is one of the most cynical acts in the history of British foreign policy. Dressed up as an environmentalist move, and with support from a number of purblind environmentalists, the waters around the Chagos Archipelago have been declared the world’s largest marine reserve – in which all fishing is banned. The islanders, of course, are fishermen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36139130/ns/world_news-world_environment/
The sheer cynicism of this effort by Miliband to dress up genocide as environmentalism is simply breathtaking. If we were really cooncerned about the environment of Diego Garcia we would not have built a massive airbase and harbour on a fragile coral atoll and filled it with nuclear weapons.
‘I think you won’t remain a member of your party for long as you seem to have a natural dislike of any form of responsibility and “discipline”. Ha Ha.’
eddie
craig is not like you then eddie. Ha Ha.’
While it’s true that Millipede wasn’t responsible for the original disgraceful episode of ethnic cleansing, (rather than genocide), of the Chagossians, he has certainly been instrumental in perpetuating the injustice. Similarly, nobody would accuse French post-war governments of being guilty of the crimes committed by the Vichy regime, but they have used the excuse of Vichy “illegitimacy”, (legally they deny its very existence), to refuse restitution of property sequestered from Jewish families. There is no logical basis for this, as if the Vichy governmemt had no legal basis to order the seizures, the property should still belong to the original owners. The argument is applied selectively however, to continue to deprive them of a legally responsible authority that they could take to court in order to regain their property.
“The evictions happened before Milliband was an adult, let alone in power. You manage to give the impression that the labour Government is responsible”
It was originally done under Wilson, was it not ?
(chorus: it depends what you mean by “the”)
Dear Craig Murray,
Is there any chance you could get an article on David Miliband into The Guardian? Miliband seems to be enjoying enormous popularity now — people are totally unaware of his dark side.