Chagos Archipelago

Chagos Archipelago
Locations	Indian Ocean
Subpage(s)	•Chagos Archipelago/Depopulation

The Chagos Archipelago is in a remote but strategically very useful location in the Indian Ocean.

Mauritius

The islands were administered with Mauritius as part of the British Empire. When granted independence, the Mauritian was "frightened" into accepting continued UK control of the islands amid an indication that other wise it would not be given independence. The UK paid the self-governing colony of Mauritius £3m for the islands.

Expulsion of inhabitants

Full article: Chagos Archipelago/Depopulation

Denis Greenhill's 1966 cable

The islands were were cleared of inhabitants by the UK from 1965 onwards to prevent interruptions to military operations. The US established a military base.

US purposes

The US used the Chagos Islands for "extraordinary rendition".

UK Policy

A UK Foreign Office memo of 1980 recommended to then Foreign Secretary that “no journalists should be allowed to visit Diego Garcia” and that visits by MPs be kept to a minimum to keep out those “who deliberately stir up unwelcome questions”.

Right to return

In 2000, UK foreign secretary Robin Cook resisted pressure from the US and promised the displaced citizens of the Chagos Islands the right to return to the Outer Chagos Islands. His successor Jack Straw reneged on this promise.

2019 ICJ ruling

The ICJ ruled that the UK should hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius "as rapidly as possible" and that continued UK occupation of the remote archipelago is illegal. The General Assembly reaffirmed this decision by a vote of 116 in favour, to 6 against (Australia, Hungary, Israel, Maldives, UK and the US). The UK ignored the ruling, prompting the prime minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, to exploring the possibility of bringing charges of crimes against humanity against individual British officials to the ICC.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Boeing	“Clearly Boeing and certain agencies have the capacity to take over ‘uninterruptible control’ of commercial airliners of which MH370 B777 is one. Someone is hiding something, it is not fair that… Malaysia should take the blame. For some reason, the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA"”	Mahathir Mohamad	2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	“This report makes no attempt or claim to prove that the large low flying jet plane seen over Kudahuvadhoo that fateful early morning was MH 370. It merely sets the record straight that the jet plane that overflew Kudahuvadhoo has not yet been identified. The Maldives government first claimed there was "no plane", then the plane was a "private jet", then fifteen months later a "domestic propeller plane flight", then back to "no plane", then finally to say it cannot be discussed due to "national security".”	Blaine Gibson	2016
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	“Clearly Boeing and certain agencies have the capacity to take over ‘uninterruptible control’ of commercial airliners of which MH370 B777 is one. Someone is hiding something, it is not fair that… Malaysia should take the blame. For some reason, the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA"”	Mahathir Mohamad	2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	“My own view is that probably control was taken of that aeroplane, the events that happened during the course of its tracked flight will be anybody's guess of who did what and when. I think we need to know who was on this aeroplane in the detail that obviously some people do know, we need to know what was in the hold of the aeroplane, in the detail we need to know, in a transparent manner.”	Tim Clark	November 2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370/Blaine Alan Gibson's research	“This report makes no attempt or claim to prove that the large low flying jet plane seen over Kudahuvadhoo that fateful early morning was MH 370. It merely sets the record straight that the jet plane that overflew Kudahuvadhoo has not yet been identified. The Maldives government first claimed there was "no plane", then the plane was a "private jet", then fifteen months later a "domestic propeller plane flight", then back to "no plane", then finally to say it cannot be discussed due to "national security".”	Blaine Gibson	2016

 

Event Witnessed

Event	Location(s)	Description
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	South China Sea Indian Ocean	A commercial airliner which went missing. Reported to be seen flying towards black site, Diego Garcia. The prime-minister of Malaysia became visibly concerned that Boeing and the CIA were covering up something.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Depopulation of the Chagos Islands 1965-73	book extract	12 February 2007	Mark Curtis
Document:Falklands and Chagos - A Tale of Two Islands	essay	21 March 2012	Peter	The UK official narrative of the Falklands War is that its primary objective was to free a plucky island people from subjugation by Argentina. This article compares their treatment with that of a similar sized settled, British-protected population, on a similarly remote island archepelago, a decade earlier.
Document:The World War on Democracy	article	19 January 2012	John Pilger	An illustration of the true nature of 'Globalisation' by recounting the story of the Chagos Islanders and their Machiavellian abuse at the hands of the UK government.

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