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PORT
LOUIS, Mauritius--As the war on terrorism
heats up, a small island in the middle
of the Indian Ocean, prepares for a lot
more military traffic. Diego Garcia, a
joint US and British military island, has
long been a key base for launching operations
from the Cold War to an important refueling
stop during the Gulf War.
Diego
Garcia lies about 2,200 kilometers (1,365 miles)
from Mauritius in the Chagos archipelago, and
would have been a part of Mauritius if the
British hadn't retained ownership of the island
after granting Mauritius independence in 1968--making
Diego Garcia and the islands surrounding it
into a British Indian OceanTerritory; before
decolonization these islands were administered
from Mauritius.
Problems arose when the British rented out
the island in 1966, calling it uninhabited,
to the United States for $1.00 per year, for
50 years, with the option to renew. About 2,000
residents of the island, natives known as Ilois,
were forcibly removed to Mauritius. They have
been suing the British and American governments
for the right to return to their island ever
since.
A breakthrough came for the now 7,000 Ilois
descendants almost a year ago. On November
3, 2000, a British high court overturned a
1971 ban on natives from returning to their
island.
"Itwas a landmark decision, and the timing
couldn't have been better," said Henri
Marimootoo, an iinvestigative journalist in
Mauritius. "They were about to rehaul
the British code of human rights, and they
couldn't very well go it to that without admitting
the truth about the Ilois. They lied to the
US and the UN all those years ago, they said
the island was uninhabited, but it was. It
was time to recognize the mistake, and begin
to make it right."
The decision also paved the way for a class
action suit against the US government, asking
for $12 billion in damages.
"The Ilois were exiled to Mauritius where
they were treated like outsiders, and, for
the most part were passed over and ignored," said
Marimootoo.
The
US embassy in Mauritius had "no comment
due to the impending litigation," said
Dan Claffey, US Communications officer inMauritius.
With
the lease still in effect until 2016, the
US and England
are stepping up operations
on Diego Garcia. "There was some talk
about redeploying the European arsenal to Diego
Garcia, even before the attacks in the United
States. But ift hat arsenal comes with 65,000
US GI's, I don't think that Diego Garcia can
handle it," said Marimootoo.
Right now Diego Garcia has about 5,000 US
troops stationed there, plus 50 to 60 British
troops as a symbolic presence. The troops are
serviced by Sri Lankan and some Singaporean
civilians, the US preferring to import third
parties, rather than use Mauritians or Ilois.
The US announced that no new troops, only
supplies, would be going to Diego Garcia. But,
a letter from Eric Newsom, a US military political
attache, to the London High Court last year
outlines US planes to redeploy most of their
European arsenal to Diego Garcia. In the letter
he states the absolute necessity to use all
25 islands in the archipelago for the redeployment.
"Ibelieve that Diego Garcia could hold
up to 30,000 troops, but no more than that," said
Marimootoo, who has spent the last 15 years
reporting on the Ilois. "There has been
a complete geopolitical change in the last
five years. Before decolonization there were
10 Allied bases around the Indian Ocean, which
was reduced to one: Diego Garcia. Now the allies
are coming back. There are now bases in Djibouti,
Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, almost
as many as during colonization. Clearly the
area is growing in importance."
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