Jointpleasure
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Few could accuse you of ignorance for never having heard of Diego Garcia—much less for not knowing that it's not a person but an island. Along with such obscure, far-flung places as Fogo Island off the West Coast of Africa and Pukapuka in the South Pacific, Diego Garcia isn't the sort of place to come tripping off the tongue of even the most geographically sophisticated.
There are times, however, when the U.S. military considers this 17-square-mile atoll of coral and sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean one of the most valuable places on Earth.
A British dependency, Diego Garcia was developed as a joint U.S.-UK air and naval refueling and support station during the cold war. Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and out of cyclone range, it was ideal for keeping an eye on the Soviet Union.
Diego Garcia proved to be critically important as a refueling base during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and during Operation Desert Fox, it served as a base for B-52 bombers, which on Dec. 17, 1998, launched nearly 100 long-range cruise missiles aimed at Iraq. Beginning on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States again used Diego Garcia when it launched B-1 and B-52 bomber attacks against Afghanistan, in retaliation for the Taliban's harboring of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Currently, a number of al-Qaeda suspects are being held and interrogated on the island. Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin), the leader of the Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, responsible for the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali, is currently being held on the island. During the 2003 British and American-led war against Iraq, the Diego Garcia once again played a crucial strategic role.
The fact that Diego Garcia is more than 3,000 miles south of Iraq, and just a shade closer to Afghanistan, did not pose the logistical problem one might expect. According to the U.S. Air Force, B-52s have an "unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles." (During the Gulf War, B-52s took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, launched cruise missiles on Iraq, and returned to Barksdale 35 hours later—the longest non-stop combat mission in the history of the B-52.)
The Portuguese explored Diego Garcia in the 1500s; between 1814 and 1965 it was a dependency of Mauritius. It then became part of the Chagos Archipelago, which belonged to the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The island remains a British dependency today.
Although Diego Garcia once had a small native population, the inhabitants, known as the Ilois, or the Chagossians, were forced to relocate (1967–1973) so that the island could be turned into a military base—over the strong protestations of other Indian Ocean islands, who objected to having cruise missiles as neighbors. Most of the displaced Ilois were agricultural workers and fisherman. Uprooted and robbed of their livelihood, the Ilois now live in poverty in Mauritius's urban slums, more than 1,000 miles from their homeland. A smaller number were deported to the Seychelles. In 2000, a British court ruled that the order to evacuate Diego Garcia's inhabitants was invalid, but the court also upheld the island's military status, which permits only personnel authorized by the military to inhabit the island. The Ilois sued the British government for compensation and the right to repatriation, but in Oct. 2003 a British judge ruled that although the Ilois had been treated "shamefully" by the government, their claims were unfounded. In 2004 the British government issued an "Order of Council" prohibiting islanders from ever returning to Diego Garcia. A 2004 documentary by Australian journalist and filmamker John Pilger, Stealing a Nation, has publicized the plight of the islanders.
There are times, however, when the U.S. military considers this 17-square-mile atoll of coral and sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean one of the most valuable places on Earth.
A British dependency, Diego Garcia was developed as a joint U.S.-UK air and naval refueling and support station during the cold war. Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and out of cyclone range, it was ideal for keeping an eye on the Soviet Union.
Diego Garcia proved to be critically important as a refueling base during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and during Operation Desert Fox, it served as a base for B-52 bombers, which on Dec. 17, 1998, launched nearly 100 long-range cruise missiles aimed at Iraq. Beginning on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States again used Diego Garcia when it launched B-1 and B-52 bomber attacks against Afghanistan, in retaliation for the Taliban's harboring of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Currently, a number of al-Qaeda suspects are being held and interrogated on the island. Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin), the leader of the Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, responsible for the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali, is currently being held on the island. During the 2003 British and American-led war against Iraq, the Diego Garcia once again played a crucial strategic role.
The fact that Diego Garcia is more than 3,000 miles south of Iraq, and just a shade closer to Afghanistan, did not pose the logistical problem one might expect. According to the U.S. Air Force, B-52s have an "unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles." (During the Gulf War, B-52s took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, launched cruise missiles on Iraq, and returned to Barksdale 35 hours later—the longest non-stop combat mission in the history of the B-52.)
The Portuguese explored Diego Garcia in the 1500s; between 1814 and 1965 it was a dependency of Mauritius. It then became part of the Chagos Archipelago, which belonged to the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The island remains a British dependency today.
