Diego Garcia dishonorable U.S Army Base

A Story by Didier Zephir

The Americans demanded that the surrounding islands be "swept" and "sanitized". There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life.

Diego Garcia Island located approximately 1,970 nautical miles (3,650km) east of the coast of Africa Tanzania.

An early morning of 1968 a small Island with a population numbered about 2,000 peoples there, where at least 3 generation of peoples who had lived before, were tricked and expelled from their house, from their farms, from their everyday lives, from their native place, to be sent over there on the Mauritius Island.

The Chagossians, while living on the Diego Garcia Island, knew nothing about what is call money, electricity or Refrigerator. Fish,chicken,ducks,Coconut, bananas, sea fruits and more were the resources for their daily food. They were eating from what the Island provides itself. Every extra fish or any food caught was always shared among the 'illois'.

For the Island have a phenomenal beauty and resources, the Chagossians were never in abject poverty while living in their nation.

Life was peaceful, it was like tasting a bit heaven on Earth...

The Island had a School, a medical dispensary, a jail and a very undisturbed way of life.

I still wonder how would we have felt if one day coming from a family vacation we were announced that it has been proclaimed that your house and the land have been sold.

What a SHOCK!

What a CRIME!

What a CONSPIRACY!

That very thing happened to these 2,000 peoples on this early morning of 1968. With no hope at all on that particular day to return back.

They were intimated by the British Army on their land as for sure the British Army did not come with a bouquet of Roses but with Guns and real bullets. Though some man also known as 'Illois' tried to resist with no force of course, history teaches us that Gun shots with real bullets was used to kill, not humans lives but to kill every dogs found on the Island as an act of demonstration and intimidation from the Army.

They were forced to get on the M/V Nordvaer the ship that was used for the expel. On the M/V Nordvaer, animals and foods were kept safe while the Chagossians slept on the deck itself.

Advocates of the Chagossians claim that the number of Chagossian residents on Diego Garcia was deliberately under-counted.

On 23 January 1971, a nine-man advance party from the U.S. Navy's Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40 landed on Diego Garcia to confirm planning information and conduct a survey for beach landing areas.

At 5 p.m. local time on 9 March 1971, the USS Vernon County arrived at Diego Garcia.

The next day, she began underwater and beach surveys in preparation for beaching. Two days after that, the ship beached and began offloading men and construction equipment for construction of a U.S. Navy base on Diego Garcia.

Construction continued for the remainder of the summer, with the completion (28 July 1971) of the first runaway on the island (3,500 ft in length).

In March 1971, a civil servant travelled from Mauritius to tell the Chagossians that they were to leave.

A memorandum related that:

I told the inhabitants that we intended to close the island in July. A few of them asked whether they could receive some compensation for leaving 'their own country.' I kicked this into touch by saying that our intention was to cause as little disruption to their lives as possible.

Some weeks later, the remaining Chagossians began packing their belongings and nailing shut their houses. They were shipped to Mauritius by the U.S. Navy as they became ready. On 15 October 1971, the few remaining Chagossians held a last Mass in the island's one church.

Later that day, the last of the Chagossians and their families were shipped out on the MV Nordvaer.

They arrived at Mauritius and were left at Port Louis with no place to go, no family, no job.

A Nation been Stolen...

The World remains silent while the F16 and F18 keep making noise and bombing..... by flying from the Diego Garcia Island.

Thou Cry a Nation and tears in the silent midst of the Night and day.

Didier Zephir

06^th February 2014