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NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 2004

Diego Garcia: island at intersection of many struggles

Port Louis, Republic of Mauritius--On Diego Garcia is one of the
biggest military bases in the world. Maybe the biggest outside
the U.S. Tarmac and bombs where coconut palms were. Nuclear
warheads and submarines where coral and fish were. Clubhouses for
different grades and ranks of military men, where peoples’ tiny
homes used to nestle in the trees. Civilian companies raking in
money from defense contracts, where people used to de-husk
coconuts, dry their fish, cook their turtle eggs.

So that’s the first struggle involved: against militarism, to
close down the military base on Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is a
key base to the U.S. Armed Forces, when it attacks Iraq and
Afghanistan. B-52s take off from there. In order for the
Pelindaba Treaty for a Nuclear Arms Free Africa to be signed, the
treaty had to contain the infamous "dotted lines” around Diego
Garcia. The struggle for a nuclear arms-free Africa goes through
the struggle to close down the U.S. base on Diego Garcia.

The people of Diego Garcia, the Chagossians, were forcibly
removed from their beloved land. They were tricked off the
Islands first, then those who were not tricked, were frightened
off (their 1,600 dogs were gassed in front of them), and the rest
of them were starved off Diego Garcia and the other islands.

THE RIGHT TO RETURN

Two thousand Chagossians, who had lived there for generations
were forcibly removed over the period 1965-1973, and dumped on
the dockside in Port Louis, Mauritius. Just like that. Homeless.
Workless. Disoriented. Never to return to their houses, their
bedside cupboards, their hearths, their vegetable gardens, their
society. Never to return to put flowers on the graves of their
relatives and ancestors.

The torture that the Chagossians suffered was inflicted on them
by the United Kingdom, the colonizer, and the United States of
America, the military base owner. They de-populated the Islands
behind the backs of the UN in order to build their base. And they
are, with the Bush-Blair axis in power, the most belligerent
states on the planet.

For 30 years, the forcible removal of the Chagossians was kept
"secret,” mainly through the "Official Secrets Act” in the UK,
thus hiding the formal proof necessary for legal actions. Only in
the year 2000 could the Chagossians finally win their landmark
court case in the UK for the right to return.

What does this kind of secrecy make of the people of Britain? The
legal victory of the Chagossians was thanks to the oldest of all
human rights do***ents, the Magna Carta of 1215, which shows the
surprising longevity of the landmarks in the struggle for human
rights and democracy.

The Chagossians have lost a more recent court case (2003) in the
British courts. Now, they are going to appeal against the very
bad judgement handed down. The Chagossians also have a
reparations case in the U.S. courts for damages involving human
rights abuses and genocide. They will not give up. They want to
go back to Diego Garcia.

STRUGGLE FOR FULL DECOLONIZATION

This continued occupation of Diego Garcia means that 20th century
decolonization is not yet complete. So, Diego Garcia is the
centre of the struggle for the re-unification of Mauritius,
something important to Mauritians, Chagossians, Rodriguans,
Agalegans. Just like all decolonization, it is the concern of
everyone that no-one be colonized.

In their struggles for their rights, amongst the Chagossians, it
has always been the women who have been in the vanguard. On Diego
Garcia there was a matricentral society. The company that ran the
islands treated men and women equally at work, for its own
reasons, and organized for the older people to look after the
children. The women of Diego Garcia have powers that other people
brought up in patriarchy do not have, and have transmitted this
experience of strength to the women ‘s movement in Mauritius. The
struggle of the women of Chagos is a beacon for the worldwide
women’s movement.

Successive Mauritian governments have used the Diego Garcia
issue, and U.S. and British shame about their past actions there,
in order to extricate "trade advantages,” either for sugar or
textiles, either quotas or price guarantees. This is how
trade-related issues, so important today with the World Trade
Organization and free trade agreements, intersect with the Diego
Garcia struggle.

We intend to go to Diego Garcia to confront the U.S. armed forces
at their base. We intend to get the U.S. to close the base, the
UK to return its stolen islands, the U.S. to stop receiving
stolen goods. We stand by the people of Chagos to be granted the
unconditional right to return to the whole of Chagos, including
Diego Garcia, and we stand by their right to lifetime
compensation and full reparations for the damage they have
suffered. We want to see the lagoons, the coral and the land
itself back in the hands of nature and caring human beings.

'NO U.S. BASES' NETWORK FORMING

We are joining hands with other organizations world-wide in a
network called "No U.S. Bases” and calling a meeting to be held
at the World Social Forum in Mumbai. Please signify your support
(as an organization or an individual) by a short e-mail, letter,
telephone call or fax to us. We want a list of well-wishers who
can follow our confrontation with the U.S. armed forces when we
go to Diego Garcia.

Please let everyone know about what we plan to do. Meanwhile,
please raise the issues in this letter with your elected members
of parliament, congress, national assembly. Write articles. Put
the issue on agendas of trade unions and associations. Link your
struggles with ours. We want your moral support, social support,
political support, so that we can bring together all these
different lines of struggle, and strengthen them all, here and
world-wide.

http://www.newsandletters.org/Issues/2004/Jan-Feb/DiegoGarcia_Jan-Feb04.htm

--Lindsey Collen, for LALIT
153 Main Road, Grand River North West
Port Louis, Republic of Mauritius,
Tel: 230 208 2132 / e-mail: lalitmail@intnet.mu